Classic and Contemporary Poetry
EPISTLE. TO MY LADY COVELL, by BEN JONSON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: You won not verses, madam, you won me Last Line: And should grow rich, had I much more to pay. | ||||||||
You won not verses, Madam, you won me, When you would play so nobly, and so free, A book to a few lines: but, it was fit You won them too, your odds did merit it. So have you gained a servant, and a muse: The first of which I fear, you will refuse; And you may justly, being a tardy, cold, Unprofitable chattel, fat and old, Laden with belly, and doth hardly approach His friends, but to break chairs, or crack a coach. His weight is twenty stone within two pound; And that's made up as doth the purse abound. Marry, the muse is one, can tread the air, And stroke the water, nimble, chaste, and fair, Sleep in a virgin's bosom without fear, Run all the rounds in a soft lady's ear, Widow or wife, without the jealousy Of either suitor, or a servant by. Such (if her manners like you) I do send: And can for other graces her commend, To make you merry on the dressing stool, A-mornings, and at afternoons, to fool Away ill company, and help in rhyme Your Joan to pass her melancholy time. By this, although you fancy not the man, Accept his muse; and tell, I know you can, How many verses, Madam, are your due! I can lose none in tendering these to you. I gain, in having leave to keep my day. And should grow rich, had I much more to pay. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CELEBRATION OF CHARIS: 4. HER TRIUMPH by BEN JONSON A CELEBRATION OF CHARIS: 5. HIS DISCOURSE WITH CUPID by BEN JONSON A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME [OR, RIME] by BEN JONSON A NYMPH'S PASSION by BEN JONSON A SONNET, TO THE NOBLE LADY, THE LADY MARY WROTH by BEN JONSON AN ODE TO HIMSELF by BEN JONSON ANSWER TO MASTER WITHER'S SONG, 'SHALL I, WASTING IN DESPAIR?' by BEN JONSON EPICOENE; OR, THE SILENT WOMAN: FREEDOM IN DRESS by BEN JONSON EPIGRAM: 118. ON GUT by BEN JONSON |
|