The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had, Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad: Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
On Oct 13, 2013, at 10:26 AM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> Well, assume it's a seduction poem.. Then why does it make "success" seem so
> unpleasant: "Tear our pleasures with rough strife / Through the iron gates
> of life."
>
>
> Carrol
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of turbulo at aol.com
> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 10:13 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: [lbo-talk] sailing poem
>
>
> Ah, yes, Marvell. I don't know why people say Donne is hard. I think Marvell
> is
> much, much harder.
>
> I can see he's a great poet, but I have a very hard time understanding him.
>
> Joanna
>
> *******************************************
> You understand his best known poem, "To His Coy Mistress", don't you?