Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PROLOGUE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 1673, by JOHN DRYDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: What greece, when learning flourished, only knew Last Line: But 'tis your suffrage makes authentique wit. Subject(s): Greece; Oxford University; Plays & Playwrights ; Poetry & Poets; Writing & Writers; Greeks; Dramatists | ||||||||
WHAT Greece, when learning flourish'd, onely knew, (Athenian Judges,) you this day renew. Here too are Annual Rites to Pallas done, And here Poetique prizes lost or won. Methinks I see you crown'd with Olives sit, And strike a sacred Horrour from the Pit. A Day of Doom is this of your Decree, Where even the Best are but by Mercy free: A Day which none but Johnson durst have wish'd to see. Here they who long have known the usefull Stage Come to be taught themselves to teach the Age. As your Commissioners our Poets go, To cultivate the Virtue which you sow; In your Lycaeum first themselves refin'd, And delegated thence to Humane kind. But as Embassadours, when long from home, For new Instructions to their Princes come; So Poets who your Precepts have forgot, Return, and beg they may be better taught: Follies and Faults else-where by them are shown, But by your Manners they correct their own. Th' illiterate Writer, Emperique like, applies To Minds diseas'd, unsafe, chance Remedies: The Learn'd in Schools, where Knowledge first began, Studies with Care th' Anatomy of Man; Sees Vertue, Vice, and Passions in their Cause, And Fame from Science, not from Fortune, draws. So Poetry, which is in Oxford made An Art, in London onely is a Trade. There haughty Dunces, whose unlearned Pen Could ne'er spell Grammar, would be reading Men. Such build their Poems the Lucretian way; So many Huddled Atoms make a Play, And if they hit in Order by some Chance, They call that Nature which is Ignorance. To such a Fame let mere Town-Wits aspire, And their gay Nonsense their own Citts admire. Our Poet, could he find Forgiveness here, Would wish it rather than a Plaudit there. He owns no Crown from those Praetorian Bands, But knows that Right is in this Senates Hands. Not impudent enough to hope your Praise, Low at the Muses Feet, his Wreath he lays, And, where he took it up, resigns his Bays. Kings make their Poets whom themselves think fit. But 'tis your Suffrage makes Authentique Wit. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENDING WITH A LINE FROM LEAR by MARVIN BELL ENDING WITH A LINE FROM LEAR by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 1. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 1. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 2. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#20): 2. SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL YOUR SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL YOUR SHAKESPEARE by MARVIN BELL A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY by JOHN DRYDEN A SONG TO A FAIR YOUNG LADY GOING OUT OF TOWN IN THE SPRING by JOHN DRYDEN |
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