Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ADVICE TO MY BEST BROTHER, COLONEL FRANCIS LOVELACE, by RICHARD LOVELACE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ADVICE TO MY BEST BROTHER, COLONEL FRANCIS LOVELACE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Frank, wilt live handsomely? Trust not too far
Last Line: A cloudy tempest, and a too fair day.
Subject(s): Advice; Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


Frank, wilt live handsomely? Trust not too far
Thyself to waving seas, for what thy star
Calculated by sure event must be,
Look in the glassy-epithet and see.
Yet settle here your rest, and take your state,
And in calm halcyon's nest ev'n build your fate;
Prithee lie down securely, Frank, and keep
With as much no-noise the inconstant deep
As its inhabitants; nay, steadfast stand,
As if discovered were a New-found-land
Fit for plantation here; dream, dream still,
Lulled in Dione's cradle, dream until
Horror awake your sense, and you now find
Yourself a bubbled pastime for the wind,
And in loose Thetis' blankets torn and tossed:
Frank, to undo thyself why art at cost?
Nor be too confident, fixed on the shore,
For even that too borrows from the store
Of her rich neighbour, since now wisest know
(And this to Galileo's judgement owe)
The palsy earth itself is every jot
As frail, inconstant, waving as that blot
We lay upon the deep, that sometimes lies
Changed, you would think, with's bottom's properties;
But this eternal strange Ixion's wheel
Of giddy earth ne'er whirling leaves to reel
Till all things are inverted, till they are
Turned to that antique confused state they were.
Who loves the golden mean doth safely want
A cobwebbed cot, and wrongs entailed upon 't;
He richly needs a palace for to breed
Vipers and moths, that on their feeder feed;
The toy that we (too true) a mistress call,
Whose looking-glass and feather weighs up all;
And clothes which larks would play with, in the sun,
That mock him in the night when's course is run.
To rear an edifice by art so high
That envy should not reach it with her eye,
Nay, with a thought come near it -- wouldst thou know
How such a structure should be raised? Build low.
The blust'ring wind's invisible rough stroke
More often shakes the stubborn'st, prop'rest oak,
And in proud turrets we behold withal,
'Tis the imperial top declines to fall.
Nor does heaven's lightning strike the humble vales,
But high aspiring mounts batters and scales.
A breast of proof defies all shocks of fate,
Fears in the best, hopes in the worser state;
Heaven forbid that, as of old, Time ever
Flourished in spring so contrary, now never:
That mighty breath which blew foul winter hither
Can eas'ly puff it to a fairer weather.
Why dost despair then, Frank? Aeolus has
A Zephyrus as well as Boreas.
'Tis a false sequel, solecism, gainst those
Precepts by fortune giv'n us, to suppose
That, 'cause it is now ill, 'twill e'er be so;
Apollo doth not always bend his bow,
But oft uncrowned of his beams divine
With his soft harp awakes the sleeping Nine.
In strictest things magnanimous appear,
Greater in hope, howe'er thy fate, than fear:
Draw all your sails in quickly, though no storm
Threaten your ruin with a sad alarm;
For tell me how they differ, tell me pray,
A cloudy tempest, and a too fair day.






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