Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ELEGY FOR DOCTOR DONNE, by EDWARD HERBERT Poet's Biography First Line: What though the vulgar and received praise Last Line: Such vice avail more than their virtues can. Alternate Author Name(s): Cherbury, 1st Baron Herbert Of; Herbert Of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron; Herbert Of Cherbury, Lord Subject(s): Donne, John (1572-1631); Poetry & Poets | ||||||||
WHAT though the vulgar and received praise With which each common poet strives to raise His worthless patron seem to give the height Of a true excellence, yet as the weight Forc'd from his centre must again recoil, So every praise, as if it took some foil Only because it was not well employ'd, Turns to those senseless principles and void, Which, in some broken syllables being couch' d, Cannot above an alphabet be vouch'd, In which dissolved state they use to rest, Until some other in new forms invest Their easy matter, striving so to fix Glory with words, and make the parts to mix. But since praise that wants truth, like words that want Their proper meaning, doth itself recant, Such terms, however elevate and high, Are but like meteors, which the pregnant sky Varies in divers figures, till at last They either be by some dark cloud o'ercast, Or, wanting inward sustenance, do devolve, And into their first elements resolve. Praises, like garments, then, if loose and wide, Are subject to fall off; if gay and pi'd, Make men ridiculous: the just and grave Are those alone which men may wear and have. How fitting were it then each had that part Which is their due; and that no fraudulent art Could so disguise the truth but they might own Their rights, and by that property be known! For since praise is public inheritance, If any intercommoner do chance To give or take more praise than doth belong Unto his part, he doth so great a wrong, That all who claim an equal interest May him implead until he do divest His usurpations, and again restore Unto the public what was theirs before. Praises should then, like definitions, be Round, neat, convertible, such as agree To persons so, that were their names conceal'd, Must make them known as well as if reveal'd; Such as contain the kind and difference, And all the properties arising thence. All praises else, or more or less than due, Will prove or strongly false or weakly true. Having deliver'd now what praises are, It rests that I should to the world declare Thy praises, Donne, whom I so lov'd alive, That with my witty Carew I should strive To celebrate thee dead, did I not need A language by itself, which should exceed All those which are in use; for while I take Those common words which men may even rake From dunghill-wits, I find them so defil'd, Slubber'd and false, as if they had exil'd Truth and propriety, such as do tell So little other things, they hardly spell Their proper meaning, and therefore unfit To blazon forth thy merits, or thy wit. Nor will it serve that thou didst so refine Matter with words, that both did seem divine When thy breath utter'd them, for thou b'ing gone, They straight did follow thee: let therefore none Hope to find out an idiom and sense Equal to thee and to thy eminence, Unless our gracious king give words their bound, Call in false titles, which each-where are found, In prose and verse, and as bad coin and light Suppress them and their values, till the right Take place and do appear, and then in lieu Of those forg'd attributes stamp some anew, Which, being current, and by all allow'd, In epitaphs and tombs might be avow'd More than their escutcheons. Meanwhile, because Nor praise is yet confined to its laws, Nor railing wants his proper dialect, Let thy detractors thy late life detect; And though they term all thy heat frowardness, Thy solitude self-pride, fasts niggardness, And on this false supposal would infer They teach not others right, themselves who err; Yet as men to the adverse part do ply Those crooked things which they would rectify, So would, perchance, to loose and wanton man, Such vice avail more than their virtues can. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENVY OF OTHER PEOPLE'S POEMS by ROBERT HASS THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AS A SONG by ROBERT HASS THE FATALIST: TIME IS FILLED by LYN HEJINIAN OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 192 by LYN HEJINIAN LET ME TELL YOU WHAT A POEM BRINGS by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA JUNE JOURNALS 6/25/88 by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA FOLLOW ROZEWICZ by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA HAVING INTENDED TO MERELY PICK ON AN OIL COMPANY, THE POEM GOES AWRY by HICOK. BOB AN ODE UPON A QUESTION WHETHER LOVE SHOULD CONTINUE FOREVER by EDWARD HERBERT DITTY IN IMITATION OF THE SPANISH: ENTRE TANTO QUE L'AVRIL by EDWARD HERBERT EPITAPH FOR SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, AT ST. PAUL'S WITHOUT A MONUMENT ... by EDWARD HERBERT |
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