365 An Elegie upon the death of the Deane of Pauls, Dr. John Donne
Can we not force from widdowed Poetry,
Now thou art dead (Great DONNE)one Elegie
To crowne thy Hearse? Why yet dare we not trust
Though with unkneaded dowe-bak’t prose thy dust,
5 Such as the uncisor’d Churchman from the flower
Of fading Rhetorique, short liv’d as his houre,
Dry as the sand that measures it, should lay
Upon thy Ashes, on the funerall day?
Have we no voice, no tune? Did’st thou dispense
10 Through all our language, both the words and sense?
’Tis a sad truth; The Pulpit may her plaine,
And sober Christian precepts still retaine,
Doctrines it may, and wholesome Uses frame,
Grave Homilies, and Lectures, But the flame
15 Of thy brave Soule, that shot such heat and light,
As burnt our earth, and made our darknesse bright,
Committed holy Rapes upon our Will,
Did through the eye the melting heart distill;
And the deepe knowledge of darke truths so teach,
20 As sense might judge, what phansie could not reach;
Must be desir’d for ever. So the fire,
That fills with spirit and heat the Delphique quire,
Which kindled first by thy Promethean breath,
Glow’d here a while, lies quench’t now in thy death;
25 The Muses garden with Pedantique weedes
O’rspred, was purg’d by thee; The lazie seeds
Of servile imitation throwne away;
And fresh invention planted, Thou didst pay
The debts of our penurious bankrupt age;
30 Licentious thefts, that make poëtique rage
A Mimique fury, when our soules must bee
Possest, or with Anacreons Extasie,
Or Pindars, not their owne; The subtle cheat
Of slie Exchanges, and the jugling feat
35 Of two-edg’d words, or whatsoever wrong
By ours was done the Greeke, or Latine tongue,
Thou hast redeem’d, and open’d Us a Mine
Of rich and pregnant phansie, drawne a line
Of masculine expression, which had good
40 Old Orpheus seene, Or all the ancient Brood
Our superstitious fooles admire, and hold
Their lead more precious, then thy burnish’t Gold,
Thou hadst beene their Exchequer, and no more
They each in others dust, had rak’d for Ore.
45 Thou shalt yield no precedence, but of time,
And the blinde fate of language, whose tun’d chime
More charmes the outward sense; Yet thou maist claime
From so great disadvantage greater fame,
Since to the awe of thy imperious wit
50 Our stubborne language bends, made only fit
With her tough-thick-rib’d hoopes to gird about
Thy Giant phansie, which had prov’d too stout
For their soft melting Phrases. As in time
They had the start, so did they cull the prime
55 Buds of invention many a hundred yeare,
And left the rifled fields, besides the feare
To touch their Harvest, yet from those bare lands
Of what is purely thine, thy only hands
(And that thy smallest worke) have gleaned more
60 Then all those times, and tongues could reape before;
But thou art gone, and thy strict lawes will be
Too hard for Libertines in Poetrie.
They will repeale the goodly exil’d traine
Of gods and goddesses, which in thy just raigne
65 Were banish’d nobler Poems, now, with these
The silenc’d tales o’th’Metamorphoses
Shall stuffe their lines, and swell the windy Page,
Till Verse refin’d by thee, in this last Age,
Turne ballad rime, Or those old Idolls bee
70 Ador’d againe, with new apostasie;
Oh, pardon mee, that breake with untun’d verse
The reverend silence that attends thy herse,
Whose awfull solemne murmures were to thee
More then these faint lines, A loud Elegie,
75 That did proclaime in a dumbe eloquence
The death of all the Arts, whose influence
Growne feeble, in these panting numbers lies
Gasping short winded Accents, and so dies:
So doth the swiftly turning wheele not stand
80 In th’instant we withdraw the moving hand,
But some small time maintaine a faint weake course
By vertue of the first impulsive force:
And so whil’st I cast on thy funerall pile
Thy crowne of Bayes, Oh, let it crack a while,
85 And spit disdaine, till the devouring flashes
Suck all the moysture up, then turne to ashes.
I will not draw the envy to engrosse
All thy perfections, or weepe all our losse;
Those are too numerous for an Elegie,
90 And this too great, to be express’d by mee.
Though every pen should share a distinct part,
Yet art thou Theme enough to tyre all Art;
Let others carve the rest, it shall suffice
I on thy Tombe this Epitaph incise.
95 Here lies a King, that rul’d as hee thought fit
The universall Monarchy of wit;
Here lie two Flamens, and both those, the best,
Apollo’s first, at last, the true Gods Priest.