Lucasta Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, &c. To which is added Aramantha, A Pastorall. By Richard Lovelace |
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| To the Honorable, Valiant, and Ingenious Colonel Richard Lovelace, on his Exquisite POEMS. |
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 | Lucasta |  |
To the Honorable, Valiant, and Ingenious Colonel Richard Lovelace, on his Exquisite POEMS.
Poets
, and Painters have some near relation,
Compar'd with Fancy and Imagination;
The one paints shadowed persons (in pure kind,)
The other points the Pictures of the Mind
In purer Verse. And as rare Zeuxes fame
Shin'd till Apelles Art eclips'd the same
By a more exquisite, and curious line
In Zeuxeses (with pensill far more fine,)
So have our modern Poets, late done well
Till thine appear'd (which scarce have paralel.)
Compar'd with Fancy and Imagination;
The one paints shadowed persons (in pure kind,)
The other points the Pictures of the Mind
In purer Verse. And as rare Zeuxes fame
Shin'd till Apelles Art eclips'd the same
By a more exquisite, and curious line
In Zeuxeses (with pensill far more fine,)
So have our modern Poets, late done well
Till thine appear'd (which scarce have paralel.)
They like to Zeuxes Grapes beguile the sense,
But thine do ravish the Intelligence;
Like the rare banquet of Apelles, drawn,
And covered over with most curious Lawn.
But thine do ravish the Intelligence;
Like the rare banquet of Apelles, drawn,
And covered over with most curious Lawn.
Thus if thy careles draughts are cal'd the best
What would thy lines have beene, had'st thou profest
That faculty (infus'd) of Poetry?
Which adds such honour unto thy Chivalry?
Doubtles thy verse had all as far transcended
As Sydneyes Prose, who Poets once defended.
What would thy lines have beene, had'st thou profest
That faculty (infus'd) of Poetry?
Which adds such honour unto thy Chivalry?
As Sydneyes Prose, who Poets once defended.
For when I read thy much renowned Pen,
My Fancy there finds out another Ben
In thy brave language, judgement, wit, & art,
Of every piece of thine, in every part:
Where thy seraphique Sydneyan fire is raised high,
In Valour, Vertue, Love, and Loyalty:
My Fancy there finds out another Ben
In thy brave language, judgement, wit, & art,
Of every piece of thine, in every part:
Where thy seraphique Sydneyan fire is raised high,
In Valour, Vertue, Love, and Loyalty:
Virgil was styl'd the loftiest of All,
Ovid the smoothest, and most naturall,
Martiall concise, and witty, quaint, and pure,
Iuvenall grave and learned, though obscure:)
Ovid the smoothest, and most naturall,
Martiall concise, and witty, quaint, and pure,
Iuvenall grave and learned, though obscure:)
But all these rare ones, which I heere reherse
Do live againe in Thee, and in thy Verse:
Although not in the language of their time,
Yet in a speech as copious and sublime:
Do live againe in Thee, and in thy Verse:
Although not in the language of their time,
Yet in a speech as copious and sublime:
The rare Apelles, in thy Picture wee
Perceive, and in thy soule Apollo see.
Wel may each grace, & muse then crown thy praise
Perceive, and in thy soule Apollo see.
With Mars his Banner, and Minerva's Bayes.
FRA. LENTON.
| Lucasta | |