Judgment, Character and Society
Use satire, epigram, and character study to examine judgment, restraint, desire, and social habit.
6 items
Simplex Munditiis
The speaker distrusts a lady kept perpetually dressed, powdered and perfumed, and asks instead for loose robes and free hair, since studied art strikes the eyes but not the heart.
Poetry · PoemThe Noble Balm
Writing to a friend whose wound is already healing under better care, the speaker sends instead a moral medicine folded in the letter: having won honour in one full action, the friend should now rein in his hand and hold his fame reverently.
Poetry · PoemDelight in Disorder
A list of slightly disarranged details of dress—a thrown lawn, a straying lace, a careless shoe-string—builds to the claim that such 'wild civility' bewitches the speaker more than art that is too precise in every part.
Poetry · PoemTo Mr. Lawrence
In muddy winter weather the speaker asks a friend where they may meet by the fire to redeem a sullen day with a light meal, wine, lute and song, concluding that one who can judge such delights and take them from time to time is not unwise.
Poetry · PoemTo Cyriack Skinner
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.
Poetry · PoemPASSIONS are liken’d best to floods and streams
A six-line epigram likens passions to water, holding that shallow streams murmur while deep ones are silent, and concludes that those rich in words are poor in what makes a lover.