Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO NYSUS by CHARLES SEDLEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: HOW SHALL WE PLEASE THIS AGE? IF IN A SONG
Last Line: VEX TH'ILL-NATUR'D FOOLS WE CANNOT PLEASE.

How shall we please this age? If in a song
We put above six lines, they count it long;
If we contract it to an epigram,
As deep the dwarfish poetry they damn;
If we write plays, few see above an act,
And those lewd masks, or noisy fops, distract:
Let us write satire then, and at our ease
Vex th'ill-natur'd fools we cannot please.




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