IN PRAISE OF LESSIUS Goe now; and with some daring drugg Bait thy disease. And whilst they tugge, Thou to maintain their pretious strife Spend the dear treasures of thy life. Goe, take physick: Doat upon Some big-nam'd composition. Th'Oraculous DOCTOR'S mystick bills; Certain hard WORDS made into pills, And what at last shalt' gain by these? Only a costlyer disease. That which makes us have no need Of physick, that's PHYSICK indeed. Hark hither, Reader! wilt thou see Nature her own physitian be? Wilt' see a man, all his own wealth, His own musick, his own health; A man whose sober soul can tell How to wear her garments well. Her garments, that upon her sitt As garments should doe, close and fitt; A well-cloth'd soul; that's not opprest Nor choak't with what she should be drest. A soul sheath'd in a christall shrine; Through which all her bright features shine; As when a peice of wanton lawn A thinne, aeriall veil, is drawn Or'e beauty's face; seeming to hide More sweetly showes the blushing bride. A soul, whose intellectuall beames No mists doe mask, no lazy steames. A happy soul, that all the way To HEAVN rides in a summer's day. Wouldst' see a man, whose well-warm'd blood Bathes him in a genuine flood! A man, whose tuned humors be A set of rarest harmony? Wouldst' see blith lookes, fresh cheekes beguil Age? wouldst see december smile? Wouldst' see nests of new roses grow In a bed of reverend snow? Warm thoughts, free spirits flattering Winter's selfe into a SPRING? In summe, wouldst see a man that can Live to be old, and still a man? Whose latest and most leaden houres Fall with soft wings, stuck with soft flowres; And when life's sweet fable ends, Soul and body part like friends; No quarrells, murmurs, no delay; A KISSE, a SIGH, and so away. This rare one, reader, wouldst thou see? Hark hither; and thy self be HE. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOHN WILKES BOOTH AT THE FARM (JANUARY 12, 1848) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE THORN by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH JUDITH by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH INGENIOUS OVERSOUL by GRACE EVELYN BROWN AUTUMN MOOD by SELETHA A. BROWN THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: MISANTHROPOS by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |