Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE HONOURED AUTHOR, MR. HALL, ON HIS POEMS, by JAMES WINDET


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE HONOURED AUTHOR, MR. HALL, ON HIS POEMS, by                    
First Line: Dost mean to spoil thyself? Do knotty arts
Last Line: Thy purer ease in their festivity.
Subject(s): Hall, John (1627-1656)


DOST mean to spoil thyself? Do knotty Arts,
And pale-fac'd Study, fit the silken parts
Of gentlemen? Or canst thou stretch thy ears
To hear the holy accents of the spheres
From their own volumes? Wilt thou let thy hand
Tempt their strange measures in religious sand?
Summon thy lungs, and with an angry breath
Ravel the curious dust, and throw 't beneath
Thy braver feet; 'tis too, too low: go hence,
And see the spheres with blest intelligence
Moving at tennis; go, and steep thy brain
In fluent nectar; or go vie a strain
In goatish courtship; -- that, indeed, were good;
Currently noble. Nothing taints the blood,
Like this base study: hence! ye Arts; begone,
Ye brats; which serious Superstition
Brings to the threadbare parent! . . .
But thou, brave youth, with prudent skill hast taught
Thy purged ear to hear, yet not be caught
With these fond Syrens. Thy green thoughts may vie
With hoary wisdom: thy clear soul can spy
The mines of knowledge, can as quickly store
Itself, and dive to the retired ore!
Thou, like that eater, whom thy happy song
Shall cause to eat up Time himself, with strong
And sprightly heat, thou canst each art digest
In the vast stomach of thy knowing breast;
And when severer thoughts at length shall please
T' unbend themselves, then with such strains as these
Thou court'st each witty goddess, and dost tie
Thy purer ease in their festivity.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net