Of thoughts so far-fetched, as to be not only unexpected, but unnatural, all their books are full. To a lady, who wrote poesies for rings: They, who above do various circles find, For it wanteth one as yet, Then the sun pass through 't twice a year, The sun, which is esteem'd the god of wit. 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 lov'd you, For which you call me most inconstant now; 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 Either by savages possest, Or wild, and uninhabited? What joy could'st take, or what repose, Lust, the scorching dogstar, here Whilst pride, the rugged northern bear, The soil's all barren sand, or rocky stone. 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; But all my too much moisture owe 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, Will ominous to her appear: When sound in every other part, Her sacrifice is found without an heart. For the last tempest of my death Shall sigh out that too, with my breath. That the chaos was harmonized, has been recited of old; but whence the different sounds arose remained for a modern to discover: Th' ungovern'd parts no correspondence knew; 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, This world, by waters sent from thee my heaven dissolved so. 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, Virtues, indeed remote, seem to be near. Who would imagine it possible, that in a very few lines so many remote ideas could be brought together? Life's taper out? Think but how soon the market fails, Your sex lives faster than the males; And 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 punished. COWLEY. All arm'd in brass, the richest dress of war, The sun himself started with sudden fright, COWLEY. An universal consternation: His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there; Echo itself dares scarce repeat the sound. 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. The poetical effect of a lover's name upon glass : My name engrav'd herein Doth contribute my firmness to this glass; Which, ever since that charm, hath been As hard as that which grav'd it was. COWLEY. COWLEY DONNE. Their conceits were sentiments slight and trifling. On an inconstant woman: He enjoys the calmy sunshine now, 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, A new-born wood of various lines there grows : Here buds an L, and there a B; 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. Physick and chirurgery for a lover: Gently, ah gently, madam, touch Cordials of pity give me now, The world and a clock: Mahol th' inferior world's fantastic face COWLEY. 'Thro' all the turns of matter's maze did trace; Made up the whole again of every part. 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: |