The' ungovern'd parts no correspondence knew; Earth made the Base; the Treble, flame arose. COWLEY. The tears of lovers are always of great poetical account; but Donne has extended them into worlds. If the lines are not easily understood, they may be read again: On a round ball A workman, that hath copies by, can lay And quickly make that which was nothing all. Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, This world, by waters sent from thee my heaven dis- On reading the following lines, the reader may perhaps cry out—' Confusion worse confounded.' Here lies a she-sun, and a he-moon here, They unto one another nothing owe. DONNE. Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a telescope? Though God be our true glass through which we see Yet are the trunks, which do to us derive Things in proportion fit, by perspective, Deeds of good men; for by their living here, Who would imagine it possible that, in a very few lines, so many remote ideas could be brought together? Since, 'tis my doom, Love's undershrieve, Why this reprieve? Why doth my she-advowson fly To sell thyself dost thou intend And hold the contrast thus in doubt, Think but how soon the market fails, The sober Julian were the' account of man, Whilst you live by the fleet Gregorian. CLEIVELAND. Of enormous and disgusting hyperboles, these may be examples: By every wind that comes this way, Send me at least a sigh or two, Such and so many I'll repay As shall themselves make wings to get to you. In tears I'll waste these eyes, By Love so vainly fed; COWLEY. So lust of old the Deluge punished. COWLEY. All arm'd in brass, the richest dress of war, (A dismal glorious sight!) he shone afar. The sun himself started with sudden fright, An universal consternation: COWLEY. His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there; Echo itself dares scarce repeat the sound. COWLEY. Their fictions were often violent and unnatural. Of his Mistress bathing. The fish around her crowded, as they do To the false light that treacherous fishers shew; As she at first took me : For ne'er did light so clear Among the waves appear, Though every night the sun himself set there. COWLEY. The poetical effect of a lover's name upon glass: My name engraved herein Doth contribute my firmness to this glass; Which, ever since that charm, hath been DONNE. Their conceits were sometimes slight and trifling. On an inconstant woman: He' enjoys the calmy sunshine now, He sees thee gentle, fair, and gay, And trusts the faithless April of thy May. COWLEY. Upon a paper written with the juice of lemon, and read by the fire: Nothing yet in thee is seen, But when a genial heat warms thee within, A new-born wood of various lines there grows; Here sprouts a V, and there a T, And all the flourishing letters stand in rows. COWLEY. As they sought only for novelty, they did not much inquire whether their allusions were to things high or low, elegant or gross: whether they compared the little to the great, or the great to the little. Physic and Chirurgery for a Lover. The wound, which you yourself have made; COWLEY. The World and a Clock. Mahol the' inferior world's fantastic face COWLEY. A Coal-pit has not often found its poet; but that it may not want its due honour, Cleiveland has paralleled it with the Sun: The moderate value of our guiltless ore Makes no man atheist, and no woman whore; Had he our pits, the Persian would admire Death, a Voyage: No family E'er rigg'd a soul for Heaven's discovery, DONNE. Their thoughts and expressions were sometimes grossly absurd, and such as no figures or licence, can reconcile to the understanding. A Lover neither dead nor alive: Then down I laid my head, Down on cold earth; and for a while was dead, And my freed soul to a strange somewhere fled: VOL. I. D 'Ah, sottish soul,' said I, When back to its cage again I saw it fly; Fool, to that body to return Where it condemn'd and destined is to burn! Once dead, how can it be Death should a thing so pleasant seem to thee, Woe to her stubborn heart, if once mine come Into the self same room; 'Twill tear and blow up all within, Like a grenado shot into a magazine. Then shall Love keep the ashes, and torn parts, Shall out of both one new one make : From her's the' allay, from mine the metal take. COWLEY. The poetical Propagation of Light: The prince's favour is diffused o'er all, From which all fortunes, names, and natures fall: Then from those wombs of stars, the Bride's bright eyes, At every glance a constellation flies, And sows the court with stars, and doth prevent, In light and power, the all-eyed firmament: First her eye kindles other ladies' eyes, Then from their beams their jewels' lustres rise; And from their jewels torches do take fire, DONNE. They were in very little care to clothe their notions with elegance of dress, and therefore miss the notice and the praise which are often gained by those who think less, but are more diligent to adorn their thoughts. That a Mistress beloved is fairer in idea than in reality, is by Cowley thus expressed: Thou in my fancy dost much higher stand, |