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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
JOY, by HENRY VAUGHAN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Be dumb, coarse measures, jar no more; to me
Last Line: Sighs make joy sure, and shaking fastens thee.
Alternate Author Name(s): Silurist
First Line: Be dumb, coarse measures, jar no more; to me
Last Line: Sighs make joy sure, and shaking fastens thee.
Alternate Author Name(s): Silurist
Be dumb, coarse measures, jar no more; to me
There is no discord, but your harmony.
False, juggling sounds; a groan well dressed, where care
Moves in disguise, and sighs afflict the air:
Sorrows in white; griefs tuned; a sugared dosis
Of wormwood, and a Death's-head crowned with Roses.
He weighs not your forced accents, who can have
A lesson played him by a wind or wave.
Such numbers tell their days, whose spirits be
Lulled by those charmers to a lethargy.
But as for thee, whose faults long since require
More eyes than stars; whose breath, could it aspire
To equal winds, would prove too short: thou hast
Another mirth, a mirth though overcast
With clouds and rain, yet full as calm and fine
As those clear heights which above tempests shine.
Therefore while the various showers
Kill and cure the tender flowers,
While the winds refresh the year
Now with clouds, now making clear,
Be sure under pains of death
To ply both thine eyes and breath.
As leafs in bowers
Whisper their hours,
And hermit-wells
Drop in their cells:
So in sighs and unseen tears
Pass thy solitary years,
And going hence, leave written on some tree,
Sighs make joy sure, and shaking fastens thee.