[ { "title": "It Is Not Growing Like A Tree", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "It is not growing like a tree", "In bulk doth make Man better be;", "Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,", "To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:", "A lily of a day", "Is fairer far in May,", "Although it fall and die that night—", "It was the plant and flower of light.", "In small proportions we just beauties see;", "And in short measures life may perfect be." ], "linecount": "10" }, { "title": "Song To Celia - II", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Drink to me only with thine eyes,", " And I will pledge with mine;", "Or leave a kiss but in the cup,", " And I'll not look for wine.", "The thirst that from the soul doth rise", " Doth ask a drink divine;", "But might I of Jove's nectar sup,", " I would not change for thine.", "", "I sent thee late a rosy wreath,", " Not so much honouring thee", "As giving it a hope, that there", " It could not withered be.", "But thou thereon didst only breathe,", " And sent'st it back to me;", "Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,", " Not of itself, but thee." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "A Part of an Ode", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "to the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that noble pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison", "", "IT is not growing like a tree", " In bulk, doth make man better be;", "Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,", "To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:", " A lily of a day", " Is fairer far in May,", " Although it fall and die that night;", " It was the plant and flower of light.", "In small proportions we just beauties see;", "And in short measures, life may perfect be.", "", " Call, noble Lucius, then for wine,", " And let thy looks with gladness shine:", "Accept this garland, plant it on thy head,", "And think--nay, know--thy Morison 's not dead.", " He leap'd the present age,", " Possest with holy rage", " To see that bright eternal Day", " Of which we Priests and Poets say", "Such truths as we expect for happy men;", "And there he lives with memory--and Ben", "", "Jonson: who sung this of him, ere he went", " Himself to rest,", "Or tast a part of that full joy he meant", " To have exprest", " In this bright Asterism", " Where it were friendship's schism--", "Were not his Lucius long with us to tarry--", " To separate these twy", " Lights, the Dioscuri,", "And keep the one half from his Harry.", "But fate doth so alternate the design,", "Whilst that in Heav'n, this light on earth must shine.", "", " And shine as you exalted are!", " Two names of friendship, but one star:", "Of hearts the union: and those not by chance", "Made, or indenture, or leased out to advance", " The profits for a time.", " No pleasures vain did chime", " Of rimes or riots at your feasts,", " Orgies of drink or feign'd protests;", "But simple love of greatness and of good,", "That knits brave minds and manners more than blood.", "", " This made you first to know the Why", " You liked, then after, to apply", "That liking, and approach so one the t'other", "Till either grew a portion of the other:", " Each styled by his end", " The copy of his friend.", " You lived to be the great surnames", " And titles by which all made claims", "Unto the Virtue--nothing perfect done", "But as a CARY or a MORISON.", "", "And such the force the fair example had", " As they that saw", "The good, and durst not practise it, were glad", " That such a law", " Was left yet to mankind,", " Where they might read and find", "FRIENDSHIP indeed was written, not in words,", " And with the heart, not pen,", " Of two so early men,", "Whose lines her rules were and records:", "Who, ere the first down bloomed on the chin,", "Had sow'd these fruits, and got the harvest in." ], "linecount": "65" }, { "title": "A Pindaric Ode", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "THE TURN", "Brave infant of Saguntum, clear", "Thy coming forth in that great year,", "When the prodigious Hannibal did crown", "His rage with razing your immortal town.", "Thou looking then about,", "Ere thou wert half got out,", "Wise child, didst hastily return,", "And mad'st thy mother's womb thine urn.", "How summ'd a circle didst thou leave mankind", "Of deepest lore, could we the centre find!", "", "THE COUNTER-TURN", "", "Did wiser nature draw thee back,", "From out the horror of that sack;", "Where shame, faith, honour, and regard of right,", "Lay trampled on? The deeds of death and night", "Urg'd, hurried forth, and hurl'd", "Upon th' affrighted world;", "Sword, fire and famine with fell fury met,", "And all on utmost ruin set:", "As, could they but life's miseries foresee,", "No doubt all infants would return like thee.", "", "THE STAND", "", "For what is life, if measur'd by the space,", "Not by the act?", "Or masked man, if valu'd by his face,", "Above his fact?", "Here's one outliv'd his peers", "And told forth fourscore years:", "He vexed time, and busied the whole state;", "Troubled both foes and friends;", "But ever to no ends:", "What did this stirrer but die late?", "How well at twenty had he fall'n or stood!", "For three of his four score he did no good.", "", "THE TURN", "", "He enter'd well, by virtuous parts", "Got up, and thriv'd with honest arts;", "He purchas'd friends, and fame, and honours then,", "And had his noble name advanc'd with men;", "But weary of that flight,", "He stoop'd in all men's sight", "To sordid flatteries, acts of strife,", "And sunk in that dead sea of life,", "So deep, as he did then death's waters sup,", "But that the cork of title buoy'd him up.", "", "THE COUNTER-TURN", "", "Alas, but Morison fell young!", "He never fell,--thou fall'st, my tongue.", "He stood, a soldier to the last right end,", "A perfect patriot and a noble friend;", "But most, a virtuous son.", "All offices were done", "By him, so ample, full, and round,", "In weight, in measure, number, sound,", "As, though his age imperfect might appear,", "His life was of humanity the sphere.", "", "THE STAND", "", "Go now, and tell out days summ'd up with fears,", "And make them years;", "Produce thy mass of miseries on the stage,", "To swell thine age;", "Repeat of things a throng,", "To show thou hast been long,", "Not liv'd; for life doth her great actions spell,", "By what was done and wrought", "In season, and so brought", "To light: her measures are, how well", "Each syllabe answer'd, and was form'd, how fair;", "These make the lines of life, and that's her air.", "", "THE TURN", "", "It is not growing like a tree", "In bulk, doth make men better be;", "Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,", "To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear:", "A lily of a day", "Is fairer far, in May,", "Although it fall and die that night,", "It was the plant and flower of light.", "In small proportions we just beauties see;", "And in short measures life may perfect be.", "", "THE COUNTER-TURN", "", "Call, noble Lucius, then, for wine,", "And let thy looks with gladness shine;", "Accept this garland, plant it on thy head,", "And think, nay know, thy Morison's not dead.", "He leap'd the present age,", "Possest with holy rage,", "To see that bright eternal day;", "Of which we priests and poets say", "Such truths as we expect for happy men;", "And there he lives with memory, and Ben", "", "THE STAND", "", "Jonson, who sung this of him, ere he went", "Himself, to rest,", "Or taste a part of that full joy he meant", "To have exprest,", "In this bright asterism,", "Where it were friendship's schism,", "Were not his Lucius long with us to tarry,", "To separate these twi{-}", "Lights, the Dioscuri,", "And keep the one half from his Harry.", "But fate doth so alternate the design,", "Whilst that in heav'n, this light on earth must shine.", "", "THE TURN", "", "And shine as you exalted are;", "Two names of friendship, but one star:", "Of hearts the union, and those not by chance", "Made, or indenture, or leas'd out t' advance", "The profits for a time.", "No pleasures vain did chime,", "Of rhymes, or riots, at your feasts,", "Orgies of drink, or feign'd protests;", "But simple love of greatness and of good,", "That knits brave minds and manners more than blood.", "", "THE COUNTER-TURN", "", "", "This made you first to know the why", "You lik'd, then after, to apply", "That liking; and approach so one the t'other", "Till either grew a portion of the other;", "Each styled by his end,", "The copy of his friend.", "You liv'd to be the great surnames", "And titles by which all made claims", "Unto the virtue: nothing perfect done,", "But as a Cary or a Morison.", "", "THE STAND", "", "", "And such a force the fair example had,", "As they that saw", "The good and durst not practise it, were glad", "That such a law", "Was left yet to mankind;", "Where they might read and find", "Friendship, indeed, was written not in words:", "And with the heart, not pen,", "Of two so early men,", "Whose lines her rolls were, and records;", "Who, ere the first down bloomed on the chin,", "Had sow'd these fruits, and got the harvest in." ], "linecount": "140" }, { "title": "Song from The Silent Woman", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Still to be neat, still to be dressed,", "As you were going to a feast;", "Still to be powdered, still perfumed:", "Lady, it is to be presumed,", "Though art's hid causes are not found,", "All is not sweet, all is not sound.", "", "Give me a look, give me a face,", "That makes simplicity a grace;", "Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;", "Such sweet neglect more taketh me", "Than all th' adulteries of art:", "They strike mine eyes, but not my heart." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "A Hymn to God the Father", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Hear me, O God!", "A broken heart", "Is my best part.", "Use still thy rod,", "That I may prove", "Therein thy Love.", "", "If thou hadst not", "Been stern to me,", "But left me free,", "I had forgot", "Myself and thee.", "", "For sin's so sweet,", "As minds ill-bent", "Rarely repent,", "Until they meet", "Their punishment.", "", "Who more can crave", "Than thou hast done?", "That gav'st a Son,", "To free a slave,", "First made of nought;", "With all since bought.", "", "Sin, Death, and Hell", "His glorious name", "Quite overcame,", "Yet I rebel", "And slight the same.", "", "But I'll come in", "Before my loss", "Me farther toss,", "As sure to win", "Under His cross." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "Song To Celia - I", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Come, my Celia, let us prove", "While we may the sports of love;", "Time will not be ours forever,", "He at length our good will sever.", "", "Spend not then his gifts in vain;", "Suns that set may rise again,", "But if once we lose this light,", "'Tis with us perpetual night.", "", "Why should we defer our joys?", "Fame and rumour are but toys.", "Cannot we delude the eyes", "Of a few poor household spies?", "Or his easier ears beguile,", "So removed by our wile?", "", "'Tis no sin love's fruits to steal;", "But the sweet theft to reveal,", "To be taken, to be seen,", "These have crimes accounted been." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "To The Memory Of My Beloved, The Author, Mr William Shakespeare, And What He Hath Left Us", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name", "Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;", "While I confess thy writings to be such", "As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much.", "'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways", "Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;", "For silliest ignorance on these may light,", "Which when it sounds at best but echoes right;", "Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance", "The truth, but gropes, and urges all by chance;", "Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,", "And think to ruin where it seemed to raise.", "These are as some infamous bawd or whore", "Should praise a matron. What could hurt her more?", "But thou art proof against them, and indeed", "Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.", "I therefore will begin: Soul of the Age!", "The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!", "My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by", "Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie", "A little further, to make thee a room:", "Thou art a monument without a tomb,", "And art alive still, while thy book doth live,", "And we have wits to read, and praise to give.", "That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses,", "I mean with great but disproportioned Muses,", "For if I thought my judgement were of years,", "I should commit thee surely with thy peers,", "And tell how far thou didst our Lyly outshine,", "Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line.", "And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek,", "From thence to honour thee I would not seek", "For names; but call forth thundering Aeschylus,", "Euripides, and Sophocles to us,", "Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,", "To live again, to hear thy buskin tread,", "And shake a stage; or, when thy socks were on,", "Leave thee alone for the comparison", "Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome", "Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.", "Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show", "To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.", "He was not of an age, but for all time!", "And all the Muses still were in their prime", "When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm", "Our ears, or, like a Mercury, to charm!", "Nature herself was proud of his designs,", "And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines!", "Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,", "As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit.", "The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes,", "Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please;", "But antiquated and deserted lie,", "As they were not of Nature's family.", "Yet must I not give Nature all; thy art,", "My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part.", "For though the poet's matter nature be,", "His art doth give the fashion; and that he", "Who casts to write a living line must sweat", "(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat", "Upon the Muses' anvil; turn the same,", "And himself with it, that he thinks to frame,", "Or for the laurel he may gain a scorn;", "For a good poet's made as well as born.", "And such wert thou. Look how the father's face", "Lives in his issue, even so the race", "Of Shakespeare's mind and manners brightly shines", "In his well turned and true-filed lines:", "In each of which he seems to shake a lance,", "As brandished at the eyes of ignorance.", "Sweet swan of Avon! what a sight it were", "To see thee in our waters yet appear,", "And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,", "That did so take Eliza and our James!", "But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere", "Advanced, and made a constellation there:", "Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage,", "Or influence, chide or cheer the drooping stage,", "Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,", "And despairs day, but for thy volume's light." ], "linecount": "80" }, { "title": "An Epitaph On A Child Of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Weep with me, all you that read", "This little story;", "And know, for whom a tear you shed", "Death's self is sorry.", "'Twas a child that so did thrive", "In grace and feature,", "As heaven and nature seemed to strive", "Which owned the creature.", "", "Years he numbered scarce thirteen", "When fates turned cruel,", "Yet three filled zodiacs had be been", "The stage's jewel;", "And did act what now we moan,", "Old men so duly,", "As, sooth, the parcae thought him one,", "He played so truly.", "", "So by error, so his fate", "They all consented;", "But viewing him since, alas too late,", "They have repented,", "And have sought to give new birth,", "In baths to steep him;", "But being so much too good for earth,", "Heaven vows to keep him." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "A Farewell to the World", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "FALSE world, good night! since thou hast brought", " That hour upon my morn of age;", "Henceforth I quit thee from my thought,", " My part is ended on thy stage.", "", "Yes, threaten, do. Alas! I fear", " As little as I hope from thee:", "I know thou canst not show nor bear", " More hatred than thou hast to me.", "", "My tender, first, and simple years", " Thou didst abuse and then betray;", "Since stir'd'st up jealousies and fears,", " When all the causes were away.", "", "Then in a soil hast planted me", " Where breathe the basest of thy fools;", "Where envious arts professed be,", " And pride and ignorance the schools;", "", "Where nothing is examined, weigh'd,", " But as 'tis rumour'd, so believed;", "Where every freedom is betray'd,", " And every goodness tax'd or grieved.", "", "But what we're born for, we must bear:", " Our frail condition it is such", "That what to all may happen here,", " If 't chance to me, I must not grutch.", "", "Else I my state should much mistake", " To harbour a divided thought", "From all my kind--that, for my sake,", " There should a miracle be wrought.", "", "No, I do know that I was born", " To age, misfortune, sickness, grief:", "But I will bear these with that scorn", " As shall not need thy false relief.", "", "Nor for my peace will I go far,", " As wanderers do, that still do roam;", "But make my strengths, such as they are,", " Here in my bosom, and at home." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "Song To Diana", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,", "Now the sun is laid to sleep,", "Seated in thy silver chair", "State in wonted manner keep:", "Hesperus entreats thy light,", "Goddess excellently bright.", "", "Earth, let not thy envious shade", "Dare itself to interpose;", "Cynthia's shining orb was made", "Heaven to clear when day did close:", "Bless us then with wished sight,", "Goddess excellently bright.", "", "Lay thy bow of pearl apart,", "And thy crystal-shining quiver;", "Give unto the flying hart", "Space to breathe, how short soever:", "Thou that mak'st a day of night,", "Goddess excellently bright." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "To Heaven", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Good and great God, can I not think of thee", "But it must straight my melancholy be?", "Is it interpreted in me disease", "That, laden with my sins, I seek for ease?", "Oh be thou witness, that the reins dost know", "And hearts of all, if I be sad for show,", "And judge me after; if I dare pretend", "To ought but grace or aim at other end.", "As thou art all, so be thou all to me,", "First, midst, and last, converted one, and three;", "My faith, my hope, my love; and in this state", "My judge, my witness, and my advocate.", "Where have I been this while exil'd from thee?", "And whither rap'd, now thou but stoop'st to me?", "Dwell, dwell here still. O, being everywhere,", "How can I doubt to find thee ever here?", "I know my state, both full of shame and scorn,", "Conceiv'd in sin, and unto labour borne,", "Standing with fear, and must with horror fall,", "And destin'd unto judgment, after all.", "I feel my griefs too, and there scarce is ground", "Upon my flesh t' inflict another wound.", "Yet dare I not complain, or wish for death", "With holy Paul, lest it be thought the breath", "Of discontent; or that these prayers be", "For weariness of life, not love of thee." ], "linecount": "26" }, { "title": "That Women Are But Men's Shadows", "author": "Ben Jonson", "lines": [ "Follow a shadow, it still flies you;", "Seem to fly it, it will pursue:", "So court a mistress, she denies you;", "Let her alone, she will court you.", "Say, are not women truly then", "Styled but the shadows of us men?", "", "At morn and even shades are longest,", "At noon they are or short or none;", "So men at weakest, they are strongest,", "But grant us perfect, they're not known.", "Say, are not women truly then", "Styled but the shadows of us men?" ], "linecount": "12" } ]