But all things are composed here,
Like nature, orderly, and near ;
In which we the dimensions find
Of that more sober age and mind,
When larger-sized men did stoop
To enter at a narrow loop,
As practising, in doors so strait,
To strain themselves through heaven's gate.
Like nature, orderly, and near ;
In which we the dimensions find
Of that more sober age and mind,
When larger-sized men did stoop
To enter at a narrow loop,
As practising, in doors so strait,
To strain themselves through heaven's gate.
Marvell - Poems
"
*Ti8 true, ye trees, nor ever spoke
More certain oracles in oak ;
But peace, if you his favour prize !
That courage its own praises flies :
Digitized by VjOOQIC
THE POEMS
Therefore to your obscurer feats,
From his own brightness lie retreats ;
Nor he the hills, without the groves.
Nor height, but with retirement, loves.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
OP MARVELL.
APPLETON HOUSE. *
TO THE LORD FAIRFAX.
Within this sober frame expect
"Work of no foreign architect,
That unto caves the quarries drew.
And forests did to pastures hew ;
Who, of his great design in pain, >
Did for a model vault his brain ;
Whose columns should so high be rais'd,
To arch the brows which on them gaz'd.
Why should, of all things, man, unruFd,
Such unproportion*d dwellings build ? lo
The beasts are by their dens expressed,
And birds contrive an equal nest ;
The low-roof *d tortoises do dwell
In cases fit of tortoise-shell ;
No creature loves an empty space ; is
Their bodies measure out their place.
* A house of the Lord Fairfax, in Yorkshire, now called
Nun-^Appleton.
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8 THE POEMS
But he, superfluously spread,
Demands more room alive than dead ;
And in his hollow palace goes,
Where winds, as he, themselves may lose.
What need of all this marble crust.
To impark the wanton mole of dust.
That thinks by breadth the world to unite,
Though the first builders failed in height ?
But all things are composed here,
Like nature, orderly, and near ;
In which we the dimensions find
Of that more sober age and mind,
When larger-sized men did stoop
To enter at a narrow loop,
As practising, in doors so strait,
To strain themselves through heaven's gate.
And surely, when the after-age
Shall hither come in pilgrimage,
These sacred places to adore.
By Verb and Fairfax trod before,
Men will dispute how their extent
Within such dwarfish confines went.
And some will smile at this, as well
As Romulus's bee-like cell.
Humility alone designs
Those short but admirable lines.
By which, ungirt and unconstrained,
Things greater are in less contained.
Let others vainly strive to immure
The circle in the quadmture !
Digitized by VjOOQIC
OF MARYELL.
These holy mathematics can
In every figure equal man.
Yet thus tlie laden house does sweat,
And scarce endures the master great :
But, where he comes, the swelling hall
Stirs, and the square grows spherical ;
More by his magnitude distressed,
Than he is by its straitness pressed :
And too officiously it slights.
That in itself, which him delights^.
So honour better lowness bears.
Than that unwonted gi^eatness wears ;
Height with a certain grace does bend.
But low things clownishly ascend.
And yet what need there here excuse.
Where every thing does answer use ?
*Ti8 true, ye trees, nor ever spoke
More certain oracles in oak ;
But peace, if you his favour prize !
That courage its own praises flies :
Digitized by VjOOQIC
THE POEMS
Therefore to your obscurer feats,
From his own brightness lie retreats ;
Nor he the hills, without the groves.
Nor height, but with retirement, loves.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
OP MARVELL.
APPLETON HOUSE. *
TO THE LORD FAIRFAX.
Within this sober frame expect
"Work of no foreign architect,
That unto caves the quarries drew.
And forests did to pastures hew ;
Who, of his great design in pain, >
Did for a model vault his brain ;
Whose columns should so high be rais'd,
To arch the brows which on them gaz'd.
Why should, of all things, man, unruFd,
Such unproportion*d dwellings build ? lo
The beasts are by their dens expressed,
And birds contrive an equal nest ;
The low-roof *d tortoises do dwell
In cases fit of tortoise-shell ;
No creature loves an empty space ; is
Their bodies measure out their place.
* A house of the Lord Fairfax, in Yorkshire, now called
Nun-^Appleton.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
8 THE POEMS
But he, superfluously spread,
Demands more room alive than dead ;
And in his hollow palace goes,
Where winds, as he, themselves may lose.
What need of all this marble crust.
To impark the wanton mole of dust.
That thinks by breadth the world to unite,
Though the first builders failed in height ?
But all things are composed here,
Like nature, orderly, and near ;
In which we the dimensions find
Of that more sober age and mind,
When larger-sized men did stoop
To enter at a narrow loop,
As practising, in doors so strait,
To strain themselves through heaven's gate.
And surely, when the after-age
Shall hither come in pilgrimage,
These sacred places to adore.
By Verb and Fairfax trod before,
Men will dispute how their extent
Within such dwarfish confines went.
And some will smile at this, as well
As Romulus's bee-like cell.
Humility alone designs
Those short but admirable lines.
By which, ungirt and unconstrained,
Things greater are in less contained.
Let others vainly strive to immure
The circle in the quadmture !
Digitized by VjOOQIC
OF MARYELL.
These holy mathematics can
In every figure equal man.
Yet thus tlie laden house does sweat,
And scarce endures the master great :
But, where he comes, the swelling hall
Stirs, and the square grows spherical ;
More by his magnitude distressed,
Than he is by its straitness pressed :
And too officiously it slights.
That in itself, which him delights^.
So honour better lowness bears.
Than that unwonted gi^eatness wears ;
Height with a certain grace does bend.
But low things clownishly ascend.
And yet what need there here excuse.
Where every thing does answer use ?
