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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO MR JONSON UPON THESE VERSES by BEN JONSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: YOUR VERSES WERE COMMENDED, AS 'TIS TRUE
Last Line: THY DIRTY BRAINS, MEN SMELL THY WANT OF WORTH.
Subject(s): CRITICS & CRITICISM;
Your verses were commended, as 'tis true,
That they were very good; I mean to you:
For they returned you, Ben, I have been told,
The seld seen sum of forty pound in gold.
These verses then, being rightly understood,
His lordship, not Ben Jonson, made them good.

@3To My Detractor@1
My verses were commended, thou didst say,
And they were @3very good,@1 yet thou think'st nay.
For thou objectest, as thou hast been told,
The envied return of forty pound in gold.
Fool, do not rate my rhymes; I have found thy vice
Is to make cheap the lord, the lines, the price:
But bark thou on; I pity thee, poor cur,
That thou shouldst lose thy noise, thy foam, thy stir,
To be known what thou art, a blatant beast;
By writing against me, thou look'st at least,
I now would write on thee: no, wretch, thy name
Shall not work out unto it, such a fame:
No man will tarry by thee, as he goes,
To ask thy name, if he have half his nose;
But fly thee like the pest! Walk not the street
Out in the dog days, lest the killer meet
Thy noddle with his club; and dashing forth
Thy dirty brains, men smell thy want of worth.



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