Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO CAPTAIN HUNGRY, by BEN JONSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO CAPTAIN HUNGRY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Do what you come for, captain, with your news
Last Line: Do what you come for, captain, there's your meat.
Subject(s): Gainford, Captain Thomas


Do what you come for, captain, with your news;
That's, sit, and eat: do not my ears abuse.
I oft look on false coin, to know it from true:
Not that I love it, more, than I will you.
Tell the gross Dutch those grosser tales of yours,
How great you were with their two emperors;
And yet are with their princes: fill them full
Of your Moravian horse, Venetian bull.
Tell them, what parts you've ta'en, whence run away,
What states you've gulled, and which yet keeps you in pay.
Give them your services, and embassies
In Ireland, Holland, Sweden, pompous lies,
In Hungary, and Poland, Turkey too;
What at Ligorne, Rome, Florence you did do:
And, in some year, all these together heaped,
For which there must more sea, and land be leaped,
If but to be believed you have the hap,
Than can a flea at twice skip in the map.
Give your young statesmen (that first make you drunk,
And then lie with you, closer, than a punk,
For news) your Villeroys, and Silleries,
Janins, your nuncios, and your Tuilleries,
Your Arch Duke's agents, and your Beringhams,
That are your words of credit. Keep your names
Of Hanou, Shieter-Huissen, Popenheim,
Hans-spiegle, Rotenberg, and Boutersheim,
For your next meal: this you are sure of. Why
Will you part with them, here, unthriftily?
Nay, now you puff, tusk, and draw up your chin,
Twirl the poor chain you run a-feasting in.
Come, be not angry, you are hungry; eat;
Do what you come for, captain, there's your meat.





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