Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DEDICATION OF HE KING'S NEW CELLAR. TO BACCHUS, by BEN JONSON


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THE DEDICATION OF HE KING'S NEW CELLAR. TO BACCHUS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Since, bacchus, thou art father
Last Line: And charles brings home the lady.


Since, Bacchus, thou art father
Of wines, to thee the rather
We dedicate this cellar,
Where new, thou art made dweller;
And seal thee thy commission:
But 'tis with a condition,
That thou remain here taster
Of all to the great master.
And look unto their faces,
Their qualities, and races,
That both, their odour take him,
And relish merry make him.
For Bacchus, thou art freer
Of cares, and overseer
Of feast, and merry meeting,
And still begin'st the greeting:
See then thou dost attend him,
Lyaeus, and defend him,
By all the arts of gladness
From any thought like sadness.
So mayst thou still be younger
Than Phoebus; and much stronger
To give mankind their eases,
And cure the world's diseases:
So may the muses follow
Thee still, and leave Apollo,
And think thy stream more quicker
Than Hippocrene's liquor;
And thou make many a poet,
Before his brain do know it;
So may there never quarrel
Have issue from the barrel;
But Venus and the graces
Pursue thee in all places,
And not a song be other
Than Cupid, and his mother.
That when King James, above here
Shall feast it, thou mayst love there
The causes and the guests too,
And have thy tales and jests too,
Thy circuits, and thy rounds free
As shall the feast's fair grounds be.
Be it he hold communion
In great Saint George's union;
Or gratulates the passage
Of some well-wrought embassage:
Whereby he may knit sure up
The wished peace of Europe:
Or else a health advances,
To put his court in dances,
And set us all on skipping,
When with his royal shipping
The narrow seas are shady,
And Charles brings home the lady.





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