Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CLEPSYDRA, by CHARLES COTTON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Why, let it run! Who bids it stay? Last Line: Against a cannon-bullet. Subject(s): Drinks & Drinking; Water Clocks; Wine | ||||||||
I WHY, let it run! who bids it stay? Let us the while be merry; Time there in water creeps away, With us it posts in sherry. II Time not employd 's an empty sound, Nor did kind Heaven lend it, But that the glass should quick go round, And men in pleasure spend it. III Then set thy foot, brave Boy, to mine, Ply quick to cure our thinking; An hour-glass in an hour of wine Would be but lazy drinking. IV The man that snores the hour-glass out Is truly a time-waster, But we, who troll this glass about, Make him to post it faster. V Yet though he flies so fast, some think, 'Tis well known to the Sages, He'll not refuse to stay and drink, And yet perform his stages. VI Time waits us whilst we crown the hearth, And dotes on ruby faces, And knows that this career of mirth Will help to mend our paces: VII He stays with him that loves good time, And never does refuse it, And only runs away from him That knows not how to use it: VIII He only steals by without noise From those in grief that waste it, But lives with the mad roaring Boys That husband it, and taste it. IX The moralist perhaps may prate Of virtue from his reading, 'Tis all but stale and foisted chat To men of better breeding. X Time, to define it, is the space That men enjoy their being; 'Tis not the hour, but drinking glass, Makes time and life agreeing. XI He wisely does oblige his fate Does cheerfully obey it, And is of fops the greatest that By temp'rance thinks to stay it. XII Come, ply the glass then quick about, To titillate the gullet, Sobriety's no charm, I doubt, Against a cannon-bullet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CUP OF TREMBLINGS by JOHN HOLLANDER VINTAGE ABSENCE by JOHN HOLLANDER SENT WITH A BOTTLE OF BURGUNDY FOR A BIRTHDAY by JOHN HOLLANDER TO A CIVIL SERVANT by EDMUND JOHN ARMSTRONG WINE by FRIEDRICH MARTIN VON BODENSTEDT THE GOOD FELLOW by ALEXANDER BROME WHEN A WOMAN LOVES A MAN by DAVID LEHMAN AN EPITAPH ON M.H. by CHARLES COTTON LAURA SLEEPING; ODE by CHARLES COTTON RESOLUTION OF A POETICAL QUESTION CONCERNING FOUR RURAL SISTERS: 2 by CHARLES COTTON |
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