Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN EPIGRAM TO MY MUSE, THE LADY DIGBY, ON HER HUSBAND, by BEN JONSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN EPIGRAM TO MY MUSE, THE LADY DIGBY, ON HER HUSBAND, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Though, happy muse, thou know my digby well
Last Line: Being sent to one, they will be read of all.
Subject(s): Digby, Lady Venetia; Digby, Sir Kenelm (1603-1665)


Though, happy muse, thou know my Digby well;
Yet read him in these lines: he doth excel
In honour, courtesy, and all the parts
Court can call hers, or man could call his arts.
He's prudent, valiant, just, and temperate;
In him all virtue is beheld in state:
And he is built like some imperial room
For that to dwell in, and be still at home.
His breast is a brave palace, a broad street,
Where all heroic ample thoughts do meet;
Where nature such a large survey hath ta'en,
As other souls to his dwelt in a lane:
Witness his action done at Scanderoon;
Upon my birthday the eleventh of June;
When the apostle Barnaby the bright
Unto our year doth give the longest light,
In sign the subject, and the song will live
Which I have vowed posterity to give.
Go, muse, in, and salute him. Say he be
Busy, or frown at first; when he sees thee,
He will clear up his forehead: think thou bring'st
Good omen to him, in the note thou sing'st,
For he doth love my verses, and will look
Upon them (next to Spenser's noble book)
And praise them too. O! what a fame 'twill be!
What reputation to my lines, and me,
When he shall read them at the Treasurer's board!
The knowing Weston, and that learned lord
Allows them! Then, what copies shall be had,
What transcripts begged! How cried up, and how glad
Wilt thou be, muse, when this shall them befall!
Being sent to one, they will be read of all.





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