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Home  »  Parnassus  »  Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Epigram

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

UVEDALE, thou piece of the first times, a man

Made for what Nature could, or Virtue can;

Both whose dimensions lost, the world might find

Restorèd in thy body, and thy mind!

Who sees a soul in such a body set,

Might love the treasure for the cabinet.

But I, no child, no fool, respect the kind

The full, the glowing graces there enshrined,

Which, (would the world not miscall it flattery,)

I could adore, almost to idolatry.