Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AD AMICUM LITIGANTEM, by THOMAS RANDOLPH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AD AMICUM LITIGANTEM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Would you commence a poet, sir, and be
Last Line: And then 'tis ta'en for granted you are mad.
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


WOULD you commence a poet, sir, and be
A graduate in the threadbare mystery?
The Ox's ford will no man thither bring,
Where the horse-hoof rais'd the Pegasian spring;
Nor will the bridge, through which low Cham doth run,
Direct you to the banks of Helicon.
If in that art you mean to take degrees,
Bedlam's the best of universities.
There study it; and when you would no more
A poet be, go drink some hellebore.
Which drug when I had tasted, soon I left
The bare Parnassus and the barren cleft;
And can no more one of their nation be,
Because recover'd of my lunacy.
But you may then succeed me in my place
Of poet, no pretence to make your grace
Denied you; for you go to law, 'tis said;
And then 'tis ta'en for granted you are mad.





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