Hey, clever me!
Honest, I thought that for myself. Seems pretty obvious.
I might take you up on the challenge for an explication, Jon, though I do
find EH's poems a bit tedious.
It's the rhythms, as much as anything else -- a bit like Katherine Philips
before her time, for all of me.
In case anyone doesn't know, Edward Herbert -- Lord Herbert of Cherbury --
was George Herbert's big brother. He and Donne -- leave aside Donne's
connection with their mummy, Lady Magdelene Herbert -- were close mates, and
Ben Jonson in the Conversations alleged that Donne wrote his elegy on Prince
Henry, Jimmy the Sixth and One's elder boy who died of smallpox in his
twenties, "to match Sir Ed. Herbert in obscurity".
History would prolly be different had Prince Henry survived and taken the
throne rather than Charles I -- apart from anything else, Walter Ralegh
wouldn't have ended on the block. "Only my father" (Henry is supposed to
have said) "would keep such a bird in a cage."
More poems of his (bless Luminarium!) here:
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/chirbury/chirbio.htm
... click on Works for the poems.
(I notice that the final paragraph of the bio of Herbert here screws it up a
bit -- it wasn't that Donne "threatened" to write an elegy on Henry -- he
did.)
Robin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Corelis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 5:52 PM
Subject: Poem: An Ode upon a Question moved ...
I remember reading somewhere that the resemblance of this poem to Donne's
"The
Extasie" has been noted by critics, but I don't know whether the question of
influence has been decided.
I think this is a great, great poem. If anyone can figure out what it
means,
please explain it to me.
=====================================
Jon Corelis [log in to unmask]
www.geocities.com/joncpoetics
=====================================
____________________________________________________________________
|