AI-assisted editorial work · source and content reviewed

Poetry · Poem

To Cyriack Skinner

John MiltonSeventeenth-century EnglishPoem
SOURCE TEXT · English original
CYRIACK, whose Grandsire on the Royal Bench
Of Brittish Themis, with no mean applause
Pronounc’t and in his volumes taught our Lawes,
Which others at their Barr so often wrench:
To day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench
In mirth, that after no repenting drawes;
Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause,
And what the Swede intend, and what the French.
To measure life, learn thou betimes, and know
Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;
For other things mild Heav’n a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.
Cultural reading

Reading the poem

Addressing the grandson of a judge learned in the law, the speaker proposes to drown deep thoughts in a day of harmless mirth, setting aside Euclid, Archimedes and foreign politics, since knowing how to measure life means not refusing a cheerful hour when it is sent.

Language notes

Text and edition

The English text follows the fixed historical witness in The Oxford Book of English Verse; no modern third-party translation is included.