'Tis thou must write the poesy there, Though the sun pass through't twice a year, COWLEY. The difficulties which have been raised about identity in philosophy, are by Cowley with still more perplexity applied to love : 'Five years ago (says story) I loved you, For which you call me most inconstant now ; 'The same thoughts to retain still, and intents, Must of all things most strangely inconstant prove, If from one subject they t’another move : My members then, the father members were From whence these take their birth, which now are here. If then this body love what th' other did, "Twere incest, which by nature is forbid.' The love of different women is, in geographical poetry, compared to travels through different countries :— 'Hast thou not found, each woman's breast (The land where thou hast travelled) Either by savages possest, Or wild, and uninhabited? What joy could'st take, or what repose, Whilst Pride, the rugged Northern Bear, COWLEY. A lover, burnt up by his affection, is compared to Egypt : "The fate of Egypt I sustain, And never feel the dew of rain, From clouds which in the head appear; To overflowings of the heart below.' COWLEY. The lover supposes his lady acquainted with the ancient laws of augury and rites of sacrifice : 'And yet this death of mine, I fear, When found in every other part, Shall sigh out that too, with my breath.' That the chaos was harmonised, has been recited of old ; but whence the different sounds arose, remained for a modern to discover: "Th' 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 An Europe, Afric, and an Asia, And quickly make that, which was nothing, all. So doth each tear, Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, Till thy tears mixt with mine do overflow This world, by waters sent from thee my heaven dissolved so.' 1 On reading the following lines, the reader may perhaps cry out-Confusion worse confounded :— : 'Here lies a she sun, and a he moon here, She gives the best light to his sphere, Or each is both, and all, and so 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 All, since the being of all things is he, 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 Incumbency? To sell thyself dost thou intend And hold the contrast thus in doubt, Think but how soon the market fails, As if to measure age's span, The sober Julian were th' 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 winds to get to you.' COWLEY. "In tears I'll waste these eyes, By Love so vainly fed; So lust of old the Deluge punishèd.' COWLEY. 'All arm'd in brass the richest dress of war, An universal consternation: COWLEY. 'His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws 'Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there; Trees, though no wind is stirring, shake with fear; Silence and horror fill the place around : Echo itself dares scarce repeat the sound.' COWLEY. Their fictions were often violent and unnatural. 'The fish around her crowded, as they do To the false light that treacherous fishers show, 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 thy calmy sunshine now, And no breath stirring hears, In the clear heaven of thy brow No smallest cloud appears. 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, 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 : 'Gently, ah gently, madam, touch The wound, which you yourself have made ; That pain must needs be very much, Which makes me of your hand afraid. Cordials of pity give me now, For I too weak for purgings grow.' The world and a clock : COWLEY. 'Mahol, th' inferior world's fantastic face, Through all the turns of matter's maze did trace; COWLEY. |