Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PRELUDE TO A MASQUE, by HERBERT TRENCH Poet's Biography First Line: Princes, behold a masque, a vizored image Last Line: Become at length aware of an audience divine? Who knows? Subject(s): Jonson, Ben (1572-1637); Poetry & Poets | ||||||||
PRINCES, behold a Masque, a vizored Image of things -- A merry shadow of things eternal -- dust of a Rose Gathered, three centuries gone, for a merry-making of Kings: Life it hath still and fragrance, infinity and repose. Swift as the flame of a Cloud, a summer Cloud high-hung, Mock you not our poor Masque for the transiency of its sweetness. Our time's a time for Symbols -- who can with fullness of tongue Utter this widening World to-day with old completeness? Not as a Play that is played out orderly, clear to the end, Rounded from simple beginnings, unveils the Show universal. All's but a dim-lit Fragment, a fragment with much to amend, Much to rehearse and excuse. The whole crude World's Rehearsal! And so some Dance like a wind, some snatch of a Song or a Stave Is our time's best incarnation -- all we can humbly demand Who feel a power through the ages thrilling, Wave upon Wave Each Wave by a greater that follows compelled to expand, expand! For lo! by the lyric touch of some God behind the scenes Are the walls of this Players' house, like a rude shell, sounded! And the tears that surge in you are the tears of ancient Queens And by the soul in your eyes shall the Future be founded! I see the Earth, outscrolled like a glittering Map, lie here, Her Indian snows and seas, her minarets, palms and isles, And Time, from his last generation, his topmost encircling Tier Looks down on the glittering Map, and salutes . . . and smiles. The Playhouse itself enlarges, seems to transcend, surpass, Melt into the scene of the World. And shall there be the ultimate close? Or wave-like shall Man, enkindled, and mirrored from glass unto glass Become at length aware of an audience DIVINE? Who knows? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENVY OF OTHER PEOPLE'S POEMS by ROBERT HASS THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AS A SONG by ROBERT HASS THE FATALIST: TIME IS FILLED by LYN HEJINIAN OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 192 by LYN HEJINIAN LET ME TELL YOU WHAT A POEM BRINGS by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA JUNE JOURNALS 6/25/88 by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA FOLLOW ROZEWICZ by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA HAVING INTENDED TO MERELY PICK ON AN OIL COMPANY, THE POEM GOES AWRY by HICOK. BOB |
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