WHY should dull Art, which is wise Nature's ape, If she produce a shape So far beyond all patterns that of old Fell from her mould, As thine, admir'd Lucinda, not bring forth An equal wonder to express that worth In some new way , that hath Like her great work no print of vulgar path? Is it because the rapes of poetry, Rifling the spacious sky Of all his fires, light, beauty, influence, Did those dispense On aëry creations, that surpass'd The real works of Nature, she at last, To prove their raptures vain, Show'd such a light as poets could not feign? Or is it 'cause the factious wits did vie, With vain idolatry, Whose goddess was supreme, and so had hurl'd Schism through the world; Whose priest sung sweetest lays; thou didst appear, A glorious mystery, so dark, so clear, As Nature did intend All should confess, but none might comprehend? Perhaps all other beauties share a light Proportion'd to the sight Of weak mortality, scatt'ring such loose fires As stir desires, And from the brain distil salt amorous rheums, Whilst thy immortal flame such dross consumes, And from the earthy mould With purging fires severs the purer gold. If so, then why in Fame's immortal scroll Do we their names enrol, Whose easy hearts and wanton eyes did sweat With sensual heat? If Petrarch's unarm'd bosom catch a wound From a light glance, must Laura be renown'd? Or both a glory gain, He from ill-govern'd love, she from disdain? Shall he more fam'd in his great art become, For wilful martyrdom? Shall she more title gain to chaste and fair, Through his despair? Is Troy more noble 'cause to ashes turn'd Than virgin cities that yet never burn'd? Is fire, when it consumes Temples, more fire than when it melts perfumes? 'Cause Venus from the ocean took her form, Must love needs be a storm? 'Cause she her wanton shrines in islands rears, Through seas of tears, O'er rocks and gulfs, with our own sighs for gale, Must we to Cyprus or to Paphos sail? Can there no way be given But a true hell that leads to her false heaven? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DR. SCUDDER'S CLINICAL LECTURE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS GROWING GRAY by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON HOME by LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA DAYBREAK by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW AFTER SOUFRIERE by KATHERINE HARRIS BRADLEY LYNTON VERSES: 3 by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN |