Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A BURNING GLASS, by JOHN HALL (1627-1656)


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A BURNING GLASS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Strange chymistry! Can dust and sand produce
Last Line: A mistress' eye is but love's burning-glass.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hall Of Durham, John


STRANGE chymistry! can dust and sand produce
So pure a body and diaphanous?
Strange kind of courtship! that the amorous sun
T' embrace a mineral twists his rays in one.
Talk of the heavens mock'd by a sphere, alas!
The sun itself's here in a piece of glass.
Let magnets drag base iron, this alone
Can to her icy bosom win the sun;
Witches may cheat us of his light awhile,
But this can him even of himself beguile:
In heaven he staggers to both tropics, here
He keeps fix'd residence all times of th' year;
Here's a perpetual solstice, here he lies,
Not on a bed of water, but of ice:
How well by this himself abridge, he might
Redeem the Scythians from their ling'ring night?
Well by this glassy proxy might he roll
Beyond th' ecliptic, and warm either pole;
Had but Prometheus been so wise, h' had ne'er
Scaled heaven to light his torch, but lighted here;
Had Archimedes once but known this use,
H' had burnt Marcellus from proud Syracuse;
Had Vesta's maids of honour this but seen,
Their Lady's fire had ne'er extinguish'd been;
Hell's engines might have finish'd their design
Of powder (but that heaven did countermine)
Had they but thought of this; th' Egyptians may
Well hatch their eggs without the midwife clay;
Why do not puling lovers this devise
For a fit emblem of their mistress' eyes?
They call them diamonds, and say th' have been
Reduced by them to ashes all within;
But they'll assum[e] 't, and ever hence 'twill pass,
A mistress' eye is but Love's Burning-glass.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net