recommended by the example of Donne, a man of very extensive and various knowledge; and by Jonson, whose manner resembled that of Donne more in the ruggedness of his lines than in the cast of his sentiments. When their reputation was high, they had undoubtedly more imitators than time has left behind. Their immediate successors, of whom any remembrance can be said to remain, were Suckling, Waller, Denham, Cowley, Clieveland, and Milton. Denham and Waller sought another way to fame, by improving the harmony of our numbers. Milton tried the metaphysic style only in his lines upon Hobson the carrier. Cowley adopted it, and (N excelled his predecessors, having as much sentiment and more musick. Suckling neither improved versification, nor abounded in conceits. The fashionable style remained chiefly with Cowley; Suckling could not reach it, and Milton disdained it. CRITICAL REMARKS are not easily understood without examples; and I have therefore collected instances of the modes of writing by which this species of poets (for poets they were called by themselves and their admirers) was eminently distinguished. As the authors of this race were perhaps more desirous of being admired than understood, they sometimes drew their conceits from recesses of learning not very much frequented by common readers of poetry. Thus, Cowley on knowledge: The sacred tree 'midst the fair orchard grew; And built his perfumed nest, That right Porphyrian tree which did true logic shew. And the apples were demonstrative : So clear their colour and divine, The very shade they cast did other lights outshine. On Anacreon continuing a lover in his old age: Love was with thy life entwined, A powerful brand prescribed the date Of thine, like Meleager's fate. Th' antiperistasis of age More enflam'd thy amorous rage. In the following verses we have an allusion to a rabbinical opinion concerning manna: Variety I ask not: give me one To live perpetually upon. The person Love does to us fit, Like manna, has the taste of all in it. Thus Donne shows his medicinal knowledge in some encomiastick verses: In every thing there naturally grows If 'twere not injured by extrinsic blows; Keeps off, or cures what can be done or said. Though the following lines of Donne, on the last night of the year, have something in them too scholastick, they are not inelegant : This twilight of two years, not past nor next, Who, meteor-like, of stuff and form perplext, Whose what and where in disputation is, If I should call me any thing, should miss. Debtor to th' old, nor creditor to th' new. Nor trust I this with hopes; and yet scarce true DONNE. Yet more abstruse and profound is Donne's reflection upon man as a microcosm : If men be worlds, there is in every one 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, When Heaven shall be adorn'd by thee, (Which then more Heaven than 'tis will be) 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 loved you, And that my mind is changed yourself may see. The same thoughts to retain still, and intents, Were more inconstant far; for accidents Must of all things most strangely inconstant prove, My members then the father members were, From whence these take their birth, which now are here. "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, And where these are temperate known, 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, When, sound in every other part, 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. Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, This world, by waters sent from thee my heaven dissolved so. |