In the following cerning manna: vo Love was with thy life entwined, 43 He to wglo A powerful brand prescribed the date Th' antiperistasis of age More enflam'd thy amorous rage.1 ball verses we have an allusion to a rabbinical opinion con Variety I ask not: give me one To live perpetually upon. The person Love does to us fit, Like manna, has the taste of all in it. Thus Donne shows his medicinal knowledge in some encomiastic verses : Though the following lines of Donne, on the last night of the year, have something in them too scholastic, they are not inelegant : This twilight of two years, not past nor next, Debtor to th' old, nor creditor to th' new.6 UTW This bravery is, since these times show'd me you.-DONNE. Yet more abstruse and profound is Donne's reflection upon man as a microcosm:d :o If men be worlds, there is in every one Of thoughts so far-fetched, as to be not only unexpected, but unnatural, all their books are full.. To a Lady, who wrote posies for rings: They, who above do various circles find,row unti punt bobito}/9 Say, like a ring, th' equator Heaven does bind. When Heaven shall be adorn'd by thee, (Which then more Heaven than 'tis will be) A 'Tis thou must write the poesy there, For it wanteth one as yet, Then the sun pass through't twice a year, The sun, which is esteem'd the god of wit.-COWLEY. The difficulties which have been raised about identity in philosophy are by Cowley, with still more perplexity, applied to love: Five years ago (says story) I loved you, Must of all things most strangely inconstant prove, My members then the father members were, From whence these take their birth, which now are here. If then this body love what th' other did, 'Twere incest, which by nature is forbid. The love of different women is, in geographical poetry, compared to travels through different countries : Hast thou not found each woman's breast (The land where thou hast travelled) Either by savages possest, Or wild, and uninhabited ? What joy could'st take, or what repose, Whilst Pride, the rugged northern bear, And where these are temperate known, The soil's all barren sand, or rocky stone.-COWLEY. A lover, burnt up by his affection, is compared to Egypt: The fate of Egypt I sustain, And never feel the dew of rain, From clouds which in the head appear; But all my too-much moisture owe To overflowings of the heart below.-COWLEY. The lover supposes his lady acquainted with the ancient laws of augury and rites of sacrifice: And yet this death of mine, I fear, Will ominous to her appear: When, sound in every other part, Her sacrifice is found without an heart. Shall sigh out that too, with my breath. That the chaos was harmonized, has been recited of old; but whence the different sounds arose, remained for a modern to discover: Th' ungovern'd parts no correspondence knew; Earth made the base; the treble flame arose.-COWLEY. The tears of lovers are always of great poetical account; but Donne has extended them into worlds. If the lines are not easily understood, they may be read again : On a round ball A workman, that hath copies by, can lay An Europe, Afric, and an Asia, And quickly make that which was nothing, all. So doth each tear, Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, Till thy tears mixed with mine do overflow This world, by waters sent from thee my heaven dissolved so. On reading the following lines, the reader may perhaps cry out "Confu sion worse confounded." Here lies a she sun, and a he moon here, She gives the best light to his sphere, They unto one another nothing owe.-DONNE, 1 Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a telescope? All, since the being of all things is he, Yet are the trunks, which do to us derive Deeds of good men; for by their living here, Virtues, indeed remote, seem to be near. Who would imagine it possible that in a very few lines so many remote ideas could be brought together? To sell thyself dost thou intend And hold the contract thus in doubt, Think but how soon the market fails, The sober Julian were th' account of man, Whilst you live by the fleet Gregorian.-CLEVELAND. Of enormous and disgusting hyperboles, these may be examples: By every wind that comes this way, Send me at least a sigh or two, Such and so many I'll repay As shall themselves make winds to get to you.-COWLEY. In tears I'll waste these eyes, By love so vainly fed: So lust of old the deluge punished.-COWLEY. #3 All arm'd in brass, the richest dress of war, An universal consternation: His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws Echo itself dares scarce repeat the sound.-COWLEY. Their fictions were often violent and unnatural. Of his mistress bathing: The fish around her crowded, as they do To the false light that treacherous fishers show, And all with as much ease might taken be, For ne'er did light so clear Among the waves appear, Though every night the sun himself set there.-COWLEY. The poetical effect of a lover's name upon glass: My name engraved herein Doth contribute my firmness to this glass: As hard as that which graved it was.-DONNE. Their conceits were sometimes slight and trifling. Sacombe He enjoys the calmy sunshine now, And no breath stirring hears, He sces thee gentle, fair, and gay, And trusts the faithless April of thy May.-CowLEY. Upon a paper written with the juice of lemon, and read by the fire: Nothing yet in thee is seen, But when a genial heat warms thee within, A new-born wood of various lines there grows; Here buds an L, and there a B, Here sprouts a V, and there a T, And all the flourishing letters stand in rows.-COWLEY. As they sought only for novelty, they did not much inquire whether their allusions were to things high or low, elegant or gross; whether they compared the little to the great, or the great to the little. Physic and chirurgery for a lover. Gently, ah gently, madam, touch The wound, which you yourself have made; For I too weak of purgings grow.-COWLEY. The world and a clock. Mahol th' inferior world's fantastic face Through all the turns of matter's maze did trace; On all the springs and smallest wheels did look! Of life and motion, and with equal art Made up the whole again of every part.-COWLEY. A coal-pit has not often found its poet; but, that it may not want its due honour, Cleveland has paralleled it with the sun : The moderate value of our guiltless ore Makes no man atheist, and no woman whore; Had he our pits, the Persian would admire Our profound Vulcan 'bove that waggoner. For wants he heat, or light? or would have store Of both ? 'tis here: and what can suns give more? A coal-pit rampant, or a mine on flame? The sun's heaven's coalery, and coals our sun. Death, a voyage: No family E'er rigg'd a soul for Heaven's discovery, Venture their stakes with him in joy to share.-DONNE.Lecleor on Their thoughts and expressions were sometimes grossly absurd, and such as no figures or licence can reconcile to the understanding. A lover neither dead nor alive : Ah, sottish soul, said I, When back to its cage again I saw it fly; And row her galley here again! Where it condemned and destined is to burn! Once dead, how can it be, Death should a thing so pleasant seem to thee, That thou should'st come to live it o'er again in me P-COWLEX. ConDhy A fover's heart, a hand grenado: Wo to her stubborn heart, if once mine come an Into the self same room; "Twill tear and blow up all within, Like a grenado shot into a magazin. Then shall Love keep the ashes, and torn parts,int Of both our broken hearts; Shall out of both one new one make; From hers th' allay, from mine the metal take.-COWLEY. The poetical propagation of light: The prince's favour is diffused o'er all, From which all fortunes, names, and natures fall: Then from those wombs of stars, the Bride's bright eyes, At every glance a constellation flies, And sowes the court with stars, and doth prevent In light and power, the all-ey'd firmament: First her eye kindles other ladies' eyes, Then from their beams their jewels' lustres rise; And all is warmth, and light, and good desire.-DONNE. They were in very little care to clothe their notions with elegance of dress, and therefore miss the notice and the praise which are often gained by those who think less, but are more diligent to adorn their thoughts. That a mistress beloved is fairer in idea than in reality is by Cowley thus expressed: Thou in my fancy dost much higher stand To change thee as thou'rt there, for very thee. That prayer and labour should co-operate are thus taught by Donne: As hands of double office; for the ground We till with them; and them to heaven we raise; By the same author, a common topic, the danger of procrastination, is thus illustrated digg d That which I should have begun In my youth's morning, now late must be done; gun god And I, as giddy travellers must do, Which stray or sleep all day, and having lost Light and strength, dark and tired, must then ride post. All that man has to do is to live and die; the sum prehended by Donne in the following lines: Think in how poor a prison thou didst lie; After enabled but to suck and cry. humanity is com→ Think, when 'twas grown to most, 'twas a poor inn, And that usurp'd, or threaten'd with a rage Of sicknesses or their true mother, age, wol bsob d'omb |