Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO MY NOBLE AND JUDICIOUS FRIEND SIR HENRY BLOUNT UPON HIS VOYAGE, by HENRY KING (1592-1669) Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Sir, I must ever own myself to be Last Line: Whether more your admirer or your friend. Subject(s): Blount, Sir Henry (1602-1682); Sea Voyages | ||||||||
SIR, I must ever own myself to be Possess'd with human curiosity Of seeing all that might the sense invite By those two baits of profit and delight: And since I had the wit to understand The terms of native or of foreign land; I have had strong and oft desires to tread Some of those voyages which I have read. Yet still so fruitless have my wishes prov'd, That from my Country's smoke I never mov'd: Nor ever had the fortune (though design'd) To satisfy the wand'rings of my mind. Therefore at last I did with some content, Beguile myself in time, which others spent; Whose art to provinces small lines allots, And represents large kingdoms but in spots. Thus by Ortelius and Mercator's aid Through most of the discover'd world I stray'd. I could with ease double the Southern Cape, And in my passage Afric's wonders take: Then with a speed proportion'd to the scale Northward again, as high as Zemla sail. Oft hath the travel of my eye outrun (Though I sat still) the journey of the Sun: Yet made an end, ere his declining beams Did nightly quench themselves in Thetis' streams. Oft have I gone through Egypt in a day, Not hinder'd by the droughts of Lybia; In which, for lack of water, tides of sand By a dry deluge overflow the land. There I the Pyramids and Cairo see, Still famous for the wars of Tomombee, And its own greatness; whose immured sense Takes forty miles in the circumference. Then without guide, or stronger caravan Which might secure the wild Arabian, Back through the scorched deserts pass, to seek Once the world's Lord, now the beslaved Greek, Made by a Turkish yoke and fortune's hate In language as in mind, degenerate. And here all wrapp'd in pity and amaze I stand, whilst I upon the Sultan gaze; To think how he with pride and rapine fir'd So vast a territory hath acquir'd; And by what daring steps he did become The Asian fear, and scourge of Christendom: How he achiev'd, and kept, and by what arts He did concentre those divided parts; And how he holds that monstrous bulk in awe, By settled rules of tyranny, not Law: So rivers large and rapid streams began, Swelling from drops into an Ocean. Sure who e'er shall the just extraction bring Of this gigantic power from the spring; Must there confess a higher Ordinance Did it for terror to the earth advance. For mark how 'mongst a lawless straggling crew, Made up of Arab, Saracen, and Jew, The world's disturber, faithless Mahomet Did by impostures an opinion get: O'er whom he first usurps as Prince, and than As prophet does obtrude his Alcoran. Next, how fierce Ottoman his claim made good From that unblest religion, by blood; Whilst he the Eastern kingdoms did deface, To make their ruin his proud Empire's base. Then like a comet blazing in the skies, How death-portending Amurath did rise, When he his horned crescents did display Upon the fatal plains of Servia; And farther still his sanguine tresses spread, Till Croya life and conquests limited. Lastly, how Mahomet thence styl'd the Great, Made Constantine's his own Imperial seat; After that he in one victorious bond Two Empires grasp'd, of Greece and Trebizond. This, and much more than this, I gladly read, Where my relators it had storyed; Besides that people's manners and their rites, Their warlike discipline and order'd fights; Their desp'rate valour, hard'ned by the sense Of unavoided Fate and Providence: Their habit, and their houses, who confer Less cost on them than on their sepulchre: Their frequent washings, and the several bath Each Meschit to itself annexed hath: What honour they unto the Mufty give, What to the Sovereign under whom they live: What quarter Christians have; how just and free To inoffensive travellers they be: Though I confess, like stomachs fed with news, I took them in for wonder, not for use, Till your experienc'd and authentic pen Taught me to know the places and the men; And made all those suspected truths become Undoubted now, and clear as axiom. Sir, for this work more than my thanks is due; I am at once inform'd and cur'd by you. So that, were I assur'd I should live o'er My periods of time run out before; Ne'er needed my erratic wish transport Me from my native lists to that resort, Where many at outlandish marts unlade Ingenuous manners, and do only trade For vices and the language. By your eyes I here have made my full discoveries; And all your countries so exactly seen, As in the voyage I had sharer been. By this you make me so; and the whole land Your debtor: which can only understand How much she owes you, when her sons shall try The solid depths of your rare history, Which looks above our gadders' trivial reach, The commonplace of travellers, who teach But table-talk; and seldomly aspire Beyond the country's diet or attire; Whereas your piercing judgement does relate The policy and manage of each State. And since she must here without envy grant That you have further journey'd the Levant Than any noble spirit by her bred Hath in your way as yet adventured; I cannot less in justice from her look, Than that she henceforth canonize your book A rule to all her travellers, and you The brave example; from whose equal view Each knowing reader may himself direct, How he may go abroad to some effect, And not for form: what distance and what trust In those remoter parts observe he must: How he with jealous people may converse, Yet take no hurt himself by that commerce. So when he shall embark'd in dangers be, Which wit and wary caution not foresee; If he partake your valour and your brain, He may perhaps come safely off again, As you have done; though not so richly fraught As this return hath to our staple brought. I know your modesty shuns vulgar praise, And I have none to bring; but only raise This monument of Honour and of Love, Which your long known deserts so far improve, They leave me doubtful in what style to end, Whether more your admirer or your friend. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN ABEYANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV LEAVING FOREVER by DENISE LEVERTOV SAILING HOME FROM RAPALLO by ROBERT LOWELL SHACKLETON by MADELINE DEFREES QE2. TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING. THIRD DAY. by RITA DOVE MANHATTAN, 1609 by EDWIN MARKHAM CROSSING THE ATLANTIC by ANNE SEXTON THE INDIA WHARF by SARA TEASDALE A CONTEMPLATION UPON FLOWERS by HENRY KING (1592-1669) |
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