Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON MADAN'S ANSWER TO NEWTON'S COMMENTS ON THELYPHTORA by WILLIAM COWPER

Poet Analysis

First Line: M. QUARRELS WITH N., BECAUSE M. WROTE A BOOK
Last Line: IF A MAN MUST BE SCOLDED FOR LOVING HIS OWN.

M. quarrels with N., because M. wrote a book
And N. did not like it, which M. could not brook;
So he called him a bigot, a wrangler, a monk,
With as many hard names as would line a good trunk,
And set up his back, and clawed like a cat;
But N. liked it never the better for that.
Now N. had a wife, and he wanted but one,
Which stuck in M.'s stomach as cross as a bone:
It has always been reckoned a just cause of strife
For a man to make free with another man's wife;
But the strife is the strangest that ever was known,
If a man must be scolded for loving his own.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net