Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DIVINE POEMS: WHAT PROFITETH A MAN OF ALL HIS LABOUR ..., by JOHN HALL (1627-1656) Poet's Biography First Line: Even as the wandering traveller doth stray Last Line: Of sceptets, till that waking undeceive. Alternate Author Name(s): Hall Of Durham, John Subject(s): Religion; Theology | ||||||||
I EVEN as the wandering traveller doth stray, Led from his way By a false fire, whose flame to cheated sight Doth lead aright, All paths are footed over, but that one Which should be gone; Even so my foolish wishes are in chase Of everything, but what they should embrace. II We laugh at children, that can when they please A bubble raise, And, when their fond ambition sated is, Again dismiss The fleeting toy into its former air: What do we here, But act such tricks? Yet thus we differ: they Destroy, so do not we; we sweat, they play. III Ambition's towerings do some gallants keep From calmer sleep; Yet when their thoughts the most possessed are, They grope but air; And when they're highest, in an instant fade Into a shade; Or like a stone, that more forc'd upwards, shall With greater violence to its centre fall. IV Another, whose conceptions only dream Monsters of fame, The vain applause of other madmen buys With his own sighs; Yet his enlarged name shall never crawl Over this ball, But soon consume; thus doth a trumpet's sound Rush bravely on a little, then's not found. V But we as soon may tell how often shapes Are chang'd by apes, As know how oft man's childish thoughts do vary, And still miscarry. So a weak eye in twilight thinks it sees New species, While it sees nought; so men in dreams conceive Of sceptets, till that waking undeceive. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MYSTIC BOUNCE by TERRANCE HAYES MATHEMATICS CONSIDERED AS A VICE by ANTHONY HECHT UNHOLY SONNET 11 by MARK JARMAN SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE COMING OF THE PLAGUE by WELDON KEES A LITHUANIAN ELEGY by ROBERT KELLY A BURNING GLASS by JOHN HALL (1627-1656) |
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