1. Poems

2. Come, My Celia
by Ben Jonson
Come, my Celia, let us prove While we may, the sports of love; Time will not be ours forever; He at length our good will sever. Spend not then his gifts in vain. Suns that set may rise again; But if once we lose this light, 'Tis with us perpetual night. Why should we defer our joys? Fame and rumor are but toys. Cannot we delude the eyes Of a few poor household spies, Or his easier ears beguile, So removed by our wile? 'Tis no sin love's fruit to steal; But the sweet theft to reveal. To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.

3. Song to Celia
Drink to me, only, with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I’ll not look for wine.
The thirst, that from the soul doth rise,
Doth ask a drink divine:
But might I of Jove's Nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee, late, a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee,
As giving it a hope, that there
It could not withered be.
But thou thereon did'st only breath,
And sent'st it back to me:
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but of thee.

4. Country Letter
By John Clare
Dear brother robin this comes from us all With our kind love and could Gip write and all Though but a dog he'd have his love to spare For still he knows and by your corner chair The moment he comes in he lays him down And seems to fancy you are in the town. This leaves us well in health thank God for that For old acquaintance Sue has kept your hat Which mother brushes ere she lays it bye And every Sunday goes upstairs to cry Jane still is yours till you come back agen And ne’er so much as dances with the men And Ned the woodman every week comes in And asks about you kindly as our kin And he with this and goody Thompson sends Remembrances with those of all our friends

5. Father with us sends love until he hears And mother she has nothing but her tears Yet wishes you like us in health the same And longs to see a letter with your name So loving brother don't forget to write Old Gip lies on the hearth stone every night Mother can't bear to turn him out of doors And never noises now of dirty floors Father will laugh but lets her have her way And Gip for kindness get a double pay So Robin write and let us quickly see You don't forget old friends no more than we Nor let my mother have so much to blame To go three journeys ere your letter came.

6. Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
George Herbert ( )
Easter Wings
Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poor:
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

7. My tender age in sorrow did begin And still with sicknesses and shame.
Thou didst so punish sin,
That I became
Most thin.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel thy victory:
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

8. Assignment
Find some more information about metaphysical poetry and some more examples

9. The Metaphysical Poetry
17th century poetry which is characterized by the following features:
Lyric poetry
The use of wit
The association of sensibilities: thoughts and feelings
The use of far-fetched images. They bring the most heterogeneous ideas to a compare
The extensive use of the conceit. The conceit is an extended metaphor
The treatment of spiritual themes such as metaphysical love, faith and nature

10. The Sonnet:
The sonnet is a poem (lyric) of 14 lines. There are two types of sonnets:
The English (Shakespearean) sonnet
The Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet

11. The Shakespearean Sonnet: It is a poem of 14 lines that is formed of three quatrains and a couplet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg written in iambic pentameter . In the first quatrain, the poet presents the problem, develops it in the second quatrain and offers a resolution in the third. The couplet gives the main them of the poem. The division is, therefore, thematic and not only formal

12. The Petrarchan sonnet is a poem of 14 lines that is divided into an octet (8 lines rhyming abbaabba) and a sestet (6 lines rhyming cdecde with some variations).
The division is also thematic. The poet introduces the problem and develops it in the Octet, and offers a resolution in the Sestet

13. Shakespeare: Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

14. On His Blindness by John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide, "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts: who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er land and ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait."

15. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

16. Claude McKay
If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursd lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O, kinsmen! we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!