Classic and Contemporary Poetry
EPISTLE TO THE LORD HENRY HOWARD, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRIVY COUNCIL, by SAMUEL DANIEL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Praise, if it be not choice, and laid aright Last Line: And though it hath not hap, it shall have fame. Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Howard, Henry (1540-1614); Praise; Truth; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens | ||||||||
Praise, if it be not choice, and laid aright, Can yield no luster where it is bestowed, Nor any way can grace the giver's art, Though 't be a pleasing color to delight, For that no ground whereon it can be showed Will bear it well but virtue and desert. And though I might commend your learning, wit, And happy utt'rance, and commend them right As that which decks you much, and gives you grace, Yet your clear judgment best deserveth it, Which in your course hath carried you upright, And made you to discern the truest face And best complexion of the things that breed The reputation and the love of men, And held you in the tract of honesty, Which ever in the end we see succeed, Though oft it may have interrupted been, Both by the times and men's iniquity. For sure those actions which do fairly run In the right line of honor still are those That get most clean and safest to their end, And pass the best without confusion Either in those that act or else dispose, Having the scope made clear whereto they tend; When this by-path of cunning doth so'embroil And intricate the passage of affairs As that they seldom fairly can get out, But cost, with less success, more care and toil, Whilst doubt and the distrusted cause impairs Their courage who would else appear more stout. For though some hearts are builded so that they Have divers doors whereby they may let out Their wills abroad without disturbancy Int' any course and into ev'ry way Of humor that affection turns about, Yet have the best but one t' have passage by, And that so surely warded with the guard Of conscience and respect as nothing must Have course that way but with the certain pass Of a persuasive right, which being compared With their conceit, must thereto answer just, And so with due examination pass; Which kind of men, raised of a better frame, Are mere religious, constant and upright, And bring the ablest hands for any'effect, And best bear up the reputation, fame, And good opinion that the action's right, When th' undertakers are without suspect. But when the body of an enterprise Shall go one way, the face another way, As if it did but mock a weaker trust, The motion being monstrous cannot rise To any good, but falls down, to bewray That all pretenses serve for things unjust; Especially where th' action will allow Apparency, or that it hath a course Concentric with the universal frame Of men combined, whom it concerneth how These motions turn and entertain their force, Having their being resting on the same. And be it that the vulgar are but gross, Yet are they capable of truth, and see (And sometimes guess) the right, and do conceive The nature of that text that needs a gloss, And wholly never can deluded be; All may a few, few cannot all deceive. And these strange disproportions in the train And course of things do evermore proceed From th' ill-set disposition of their minds Who in their actions cannot but retain Th' encumbered forms which do within them breed, And which they cannot show but in their kinds; Whereas the ways and councils of the light So sort with valor and with manliness As that they carry things assuredly, Undazzling of their own or others' sight, There being a blessing that doth give success To worthiness, and unto constancy. And though sometimes th' event may fall amiss, Yet shall it still have honor for th' attempt, When craft begins with fear and ends with shame, And in the whole design perplexed is. Virtue, though luckless, yet shall scape contempt, And though it hath not hap, it shall have fame. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BOTHWELL: PART 4 by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN IN PHARAOH'S TOMB by HAYDEN CARRUTH FOR THE INVESTITURE by CECIL DAY LEWIS ELEGY ASKING THAT IT BE THE LAST; FOR INGRID ERHARDT, 1951-1971 by NORMAN DUBIE L,ENVOI: IN OUR TIME by ERNEST HEMINGWAY VASHTI by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON LINES ON CARMEN SYLVA by EMMA LAZARUS TO CARMEN SYLVA (QUEEN OF ROUMANIA) by EMMA LAZARUS |
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