The poetical effect of a lover's name upon glass: My name engraved herein Doth contribute my firmness to this glass; Which, ever since that charm, hath been 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, Here spouts 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. Physick and chirurgery for a lover. Gently, ah gently, madam, touch The wound, which you yourself have made ; Cordials of pity give me now, For I too weak of purgings grow. The world and a clock. Mahol th' inferior world's fantastic face Thro' all the turns of matter's maze did trace; COWLEY. COWLEY. A coal-pit has not often found its poet; but, that it may not want its due honour, Clieveland 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 The sun's heaven's coalery, and coals our sun. E'er rigg'd a soul for Heaven's discovery, 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, When back to its cage again I saw it fly; And row her galley here again! Fool, to that body to return Where it condemn'd 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? A lover's heart, a hand grenado: Wo to her stubborn heart, if once mine come Into the self same room; "Twill tear and blow up all within, Like a grenado shot into a magazin. 1 COWLEY. Then shall Love keep the ashes, and torn parts, Shall out of both one new one make: From her's th' allay, from mine the metal take. The poetical propagation of light: The prince's favour is diffused o'er all, From which all fortunes, names, and natures fall: COWLEY. Then from those wombs of stars, the Bride's bright eyes, And sowes the court with stars, and doth prevent Then from their beams their jewels' lustres rise; DONNE. 1 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, And I must needs, I'm sure, a loser be, To change thee as thou'rt there, for very thee. That prayer and labour should co-operate are thus taught by Donne: In none but us are such mix'd engines found, As hands of double office; for the ground We till with them; and them to heaven we raise; By the same author, a common topick, the danger of procrastination, is thus illustrated: That which I should have begun In my youth's morning, now late must be done; And I, as giddy travellers must do, lentong T Light and strength, dark and tired, must then ride post. T VOL. I. D All that man has to do is to live and die; the sum of humanity is comprehended by Donne in the following lines: Think in how poor a prison thou didst lie ; After enabled but to suck and cry. Think, when 'twas grown to most, 'twas a poor inn, A province pack'd up in two yards of skin, But think that death hath now enfranchised thee ; Think, that a rusty piece discharged is flown And freely flies: this to thy soul allow, Think thy shell broke, think thy soul hatch'd but now. They were sometimes indelicate and disgusting. Cowley thus apostrophises beauty: Thou tyrant which leav'st no man free! Thou subtle thief, from whom nought safe can be! Thou murtherer, which hast kill'd, and devil, which would'st damn me! Thus he addresses his mistress: Thou who, in many a propriety, So truly art the sun to me, Add one more likeness, which I'm sure you can, And let me and my sun beget a man. Thus he represents the meditations of a lover: Though in thy thoughts scarce any tracts have been So much as of original sin, Such charms thy beauty wears, as might Desires in dying confest saints excite. Thou with strange adultery Dost in each breast a brothel keep; And some enjoy thee when they sleep. |