On reading the following lines, the reader may perhaps cry out-Confusion worse confounded! Here lies a she sun, and a he moon here; Or each is both, and all; and so They unto one another nothing owe. DONNE. Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a telescope? Though God be our true glass, through which we see Yet are the trunks which do to us derive Things in proportion fit, by perspective, Deeds of good men; for, by their living here, Who would imagine it possible, that, in a very few lines, so many remote ideas could be brought together? Since 'tis my doom, love's undershrieve, Why this reprieve? Why doth my she advowson fly Incumbency? To sell thyself, dost thou intend, And hold the contrast, 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. CLEIVELAND. 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 punishte. COWLEY. All arm'd in brass, the richest dress of war, COWLEY. An universal consternation: His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there; 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 As she at first took me ; 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, engrav'd herein, Doth contribute my firmness to this glass; DONNE. Their conceits were sentiments slight and trifling. On an inconstant woman. He enjoys the calmy sunshine now, He sees 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 sprouts a V, and there a T, 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 world and a clock. COWLEY. Mahol th' inferior world's fantastic face, Of life and motion; and, with equal art, COWLEY. A coal-pit has not often found its poet; but, that it may not want its due honour, Cleiveland 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 Then, let this truth reciprocally run, The sun's heaven's coalery, and coals our sun. Death, a voyage. No family E'er rigged a soul for heaven's discovery, DONNE. 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: Then, down I laid my head, Down on cold earth; and, for a while, was dead; And my freed soul to a strange somewhere fled. Ah, sottish soul! said I, (When back to its cage again I saw it fly), Fool, to resume her broken chain, And row her galley here again! Fool, to that body to return, Where it condemn'd and destin'd 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? A lover's heart, a hand grenado: COWLEY. Wo to her stubborn heart, if once mine come "Twill tear and blow up all within, Like a grenado shot into a magazin. Then shall love keep the ashes, and torn parts, Shall, out of both, one new one make; From hers th' allay, from mine the metal take. The poetical propagation of light: The prince's favour is diffus'd o'er all, COWLEY. From which all fortunes, names, and natures fall: At every glance a constellation flies, And sowes the court with stars, and doth prevent, First, her eye kindles other ladies eyes; Then, from their beams, their jewels' lustres rise : 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. |