Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO HIS READER, by SAMUEL DANIEL Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Behold, once more with serious labour here Last Line: But only to have in mine own again. Subject(s): Writing & Writers | ||||||||
Behold, once more with serious labour here Have I refurnished out this little frame, Repaired some parts defective here and there, And passages new added to the same, Some rooms enlarged, made some less than they were; Like to the curious builder who this year Pulls down and alters what he did the last, As if the thing in doing were more dear Than being done, and nothing likes that's past For that we ever make the latter day The scholar of the former, and we find Something is still amiss that must delay Our business, and leave work for us behind. As if there were no sabbath of the mind. And howsoever be it well or ill What I have done, it is mine own, I may Do whatsoever therewithal I will. I may pull down, raise, and re-edify; It is the building of my life, the fee Of Nature, all th' inheritance that I Shall leave to those which must come after me; And all the care I have is but to see These lodgings of my affections neatly dressed, Wherein so many noble friends there be, Whose memories with mine must therein rest. And glad I am that I have lived to see This edifice renewed, who do but long To live to amend. For man is a tree That hath his fruit late ripe, and it is long Before he come t' his taste; there doth belong So much t' experience, and so infinite The faces of things are, as hardly we Discern which looks the likest unto right. Besides, these curious times, stuffed with the store Of compositions in this kind, do drive Me to examine my defects the more, And oft would make me not myself believe, Did I not know the world wherein I live, Which neither is so wise as that would seem, Nor certain judgement of those things doth give That it dislikes, nor that it doth esteem. I know no work from man yet ever came But had his mark, and by some error showed That it was his, and yet what in the same Was rare, and worthy, evermore allowed Safe convoy for the rest; the good that's sowed, Though rarely, pays our cost, and who so looks T' have all things in perfection and in frame In men's inventions, never must read books. And howsoever here detraction may Disvalue this my labour, yet I know There will be found therein that which will pay The reckoning for the errors which I owe, And likewise will sufficiently allow T' an undistasted judgement fit delight; And let presumptuous self-opinion say The worst it can, I know I shall have right. I know I shall be read, among the rest, So long as men speak English, and so long As verse and virtue shall be in request, Or grace to honest industry belong: And England, since I use thy present tongue, Thy form of speech, thou must be my defence If to new ears it seems not well expressed, For, though I hold not accent, I hold sense. And since the measures of our tongue we see Confirmed by no edict of power doth rest, But only underneath the regency Of use and fashion, which may be the best Is not for my poor forces to contest, But as the Peacock, seeing himself too weak, Confessed the Eagle fairer far to be, And yet not in his feathers, but his beak. Authority of powerful censure may Prejudicate the form wherein we mould The matter of our spirit, but if it pay The ear with substance, we have what we would, For that is all which must our credit hold. The rest (however gay or seeming rich It be in fashion, wise men will not weigh) The stamp will not allow it, but the touch. And would to God that nothing faulty were But only that poor accent in my verse, Or that I could all other reckonings clear Wherewith my heart stands charged, or might reverse The errors of my judgement passed here Or elsewhere, in my books, and unrehearse What I have vainly said, or have addressed Unto neglect mistaken in the rest. Which I do hope to live yet to retract And crave that England never will take note That it was mine. I'll disavow mine act, And wish it may for ever be forgot; I trust the world will not of me exact Against my will, that hath all else I wrote; I will ask nothing therein for my pain, But only to have in mine own again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CELL, SELECTION by LYN HEJINIAN OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 126: THE DOUBTING MAN by LYN HEJINIAN WAKING THE MORNING DREAMLESS AFTER LONG SLEEP by JANE HIRSHFIELD COMPULSIVE QUALIFICATIONS by RICHARD HOWARD DEUTSCH DURCH FREUD by RANDALL JARRELL LET THEM ALONE by ROBINSON JEFFERS ON BUILDING WITH STONE by ROBINSON JEFFERS |
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