Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DUELL, by JOSEPH BEAUMONT


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DUELL, by                    
First Line: Sad fruit of misapplyed valour! Here
Last Line: Yf thou in courage faylst, thy name of spirit?
Subject(s): Fights; Future Life; God; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


SAD fruit of misapplyed Valour! Here
Lies Shandoys wounded, & there Compton slayn.
O goodly gain
Of gallant Duells! are
Not Wounds & Death fine things, when they are bought
Humor and private Grudge to garnish out?

2

Surely there is another kinde of Duell
As hardy, smart & generously brave,
Though not so cruel:
A Duell which will save
One of the Champions from the miseries
Of Wounds & Death, though in the fight he dies.

3

Yea & so lawfull 'tis, that never Laws
Were kept, but by this Duells good success.
Nor is it less
Strange in the Lists it draws,
For though this fight through all the world be fought,
The feild is pitcht within & not without.

4

The Duellers are none but onely I
Or onely You; for I & You, alone
Are more than One.
In every heart do ly
Two active Parties, Flesh & Spirit, whose
Immortal hate makes them most mortal foes.

5

How strangely solemne's this Incounter! where
God, Men, & Angels, all Spectators be;
Where Victorie
Doth no less prize conferr
Than Heavn or Hell: Where the fights consummation
On this side's Death, on that Mortification.

6

Since then no Quarter heer can given be,
Courage, my Spirit, as thou lovst thy life.
On this short strife
Depends eternitie
Of rest & peace, & how how canst thou merit
Yf thou in courage faylst, thy name of Spirit?





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