"When the _high_ Helen _her fair cheeks
Showed to the army of the Greeks;_
At which I'll _rise_
(_Blind though as midnight in my eyes_),
And hearing it,
Flutter and crow, _and_, in a fit
Of _young_ concupiscence, and _feel
New flames within the aged steal_.
Showed to the army of the Greeks;_
At which I'll _rise_
(_Blind though as midnight in my eyes_),
And hearing it,
Flutter and crow, _and_, in a fit
Of _young_ concupiscence, and _feel
New flames within the aged steal_.
Robert Herrick
"
Stanza vii. , l. 2, has "close" for "both"; l. 3 "see" for "have"; l. 6,
"open" for "that cheap"; l. 7, "full" for "same". Stanzas x. -xvii. have
so many variants that I am obliged to transcribe them in full, though
they show Herrick not at his best, and the poem is not one to linger
over:--
10.
"Live in thy peace; as for myself,
When I am bruised on the shelf
Of Time, and _read
Eternal daylight o'er my head:_
When with the rheum,
_With_ cough _and_ ptisick, I consume
_Into an heap of cinders:_ then
The Ages fled I'll call again,
11.
"And with a tear compare these last
_And cold times unto_ those are past,
While Baucis by
_With her lean lips_ shall kiss _them dry
Then will we_ sit
By the fire, foretelling snow and sleet
And weather by our aches, grown
? Old enough to be our own
12.
"True Calendar [ ]
_Is for to know_ what change is near,
Then to assuage
The gripings _in_ the chine by age,
I'll call my young
Iulus to sing such a song
I made upon my _mistress'_ breast;
_Or such a_ blush at such a feast.
13.
"Then shall he read _my Lily fine
Entomb'd_ within a crystal shrine:
_My_ Primrose next:
A piece then of a higher text;
For to beget
In me a more transcendent heat
Than that insinuating fire
Which crept into each _reverend_ Sire,
14.
"When the _high_ Helen _her fair cheeks
Showed to the army of the Greeks;_
At which I'll _rise_
(_Blind though as midnight in my eyes_),
And hearing it,
Flutter and crow, _and_, in a fit
Of _young_ concupiscence, and _feel
New flames within the aged steal_.
15.
"Thus frantic, crazy man (God wot),
I'll call to mind _the times_ forgot
And oft between
_Sigh out_ the Times that _we_ have seen!
_And shed a tear_,
And twisting my Iulus _hair_,
Doting, I'll weep and say (in truth)
Baucis, these were _the_ sins of youth.
16.
"Then _will I_ cause my hopeful Lad
(If a wild Apple can be had)
To crown the Hearth
(Lar thus conspiring with our mirth);
_Next_ to infuse
Our _better beer_ into the cruse:
Which, neatly spiced, we'll first carouse
Unto the _Vesta_ of the house.
17.
"Then the next health to friends of mine
_In oysters, and_ Burgundian wine,
_Hind, Goderiske, Smith,
And Nansagge_, sons of _clune[M] and_ pith,
Such _who know_ well
_To board_ the magic _bowl_, and _spill
All mighty blood, and can do more
Than Jove and Chaos them before_. "
[M] Clune = "clunis," a haunch.
This John Wickes or Weekes is spoken of by Anthony a Wood as a "jocular
person" and a popular preacher. He enters Wood's _Fasti_ by right of his
co-optation as a D. D. in 1643, while the court was at Oxford; his
education had been at Cambridge. He was a prebendary of Bristol and Dean
of St. Burian in Cornwall, and suffered some persecution as a royalist.
Herrick later on, when himself shedless and cottageless, addresses
another poem to him as his "peculiar friend,"
To whose glad threshold and free door
I may, a poet, come, though poor.
Stanza vii. , l. 2, has "close" for "both"; l. 3 "see" for "have"; l. 6,
"open" for "that cheap"; l. 7, "full" for "same". Stanzas x. -xvii. have
so many variants that I am obliged to transcribe them in full, though
they show Herrick not at his best, and the poem is not one to linger
over:--
10.
"Live in thy peace; as for myself,
When I am bruised on the shelf
Of Time, and _read
Eternal daylight o'er my head:_
When with the rheum,
_With_ cough _and_ ptisick, I consume
_Into an heap of cinders:_ then
The Ages fled I'll call again,
11.
"And with a tear compare these last
_And cold times unto_ those are past,
While Baucis by
_With her lean lips_ shall kiss _them dry
Then will we_ sit
By the fire, foretelling snow and sleet
And weather by our aches, grown
? Old enough to be our own
12.
"True Calendar [ ]
_Is for to know_ what change is near,
Then to assuage
The gripings _in_ the chine by age,
I'll call my young
Iulus to sing such a song
I made upon my _mistress'_ breast;
_Or such a_ blush at such a feast.
13.
"Then shall he read _my Lily fine
Entomb'd_ within a crystal shrine:
_My_ Primrose next:
A piece then of a higher text;
For to beget
In me a more transcendent heat
Than that insinuating fire
Which crept into each _reverend_ Sire,
14.
"When the _high_ Helen _her fair cheeks
Showed to the army of the Greeks;_
At which I'll _rise_
(_Blind though as midnight in my eyes_),
And hearing it,
Flutter and crow, _and_, in a fit
Of _young_ concupiscence, and _feel
New flames within the aged steal_.
15.
"Thus frantic, crazy man (God wot),
I'll call to mind _the times_ forgot
And oft between
_Sigh out_ the Times that _we_ have seen!
_And shed a tear_,
And twisting my Iulus _hair_,
Doting, I'll weep and say (in truth)
Baucis, these were _the_ sins of youth.
16.
"Then _will I_ cause my hopeful Lad
(If a wild Apple can be had)
To crown the Hearth
(Lar thus conspiring with our mirth);
_Next_ to infuse
Our _better beer_ into the cruse:
Which, neatly spiced, we'll first carouse
Unto the _Vesta_ of the house.
17.
"Then the next health to friends of mine
_In oysters, and_ Burgundian wine,
_Hind, Goderiske, Smith,
And Nansagge_, sons of _clune[M] and_ pith,
Such _who know_ well
_To board_ the magic _bowl_, and _spill
All mighty blood, and can do more
Than Jove and Chaos them before_. "
[M] Clune = "clunis," a haunch.
This John Wickes or Weekes is spoken of by Anthony a Wood as a "jocular
person" and a popular preacher. He enters Wood's _Fasti_ by right of his
co-optation as a D. D. in 1643, while the court was at Oxford; his
education had been at Cambridge. He was a prebendary of Bristol and Dean
of St. Burian in Cornwall, and suffered some persecution as a royalist.
Herrick later on, when himself shedless and cottageless, addresses
another poem to him as his "peculiar friend,"
To whose glad threshold and free door
I may, a poet, come, though poor.
