Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — Plato — John Shaqi
Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Plato · en
A world, where all is found, that here is found,
But further discrepant than heaven and ground.
It hath an earth, as hath this world of yours,
With creatures peopled, stor’d with trees and flow’rs;
It hath a sea, ...
It hath pure fire, it hath delicious air,
Moon, sun, and stars, heavens wonderfully fair:
But there flowr’s do not fade, trees grow not old,
The creatures do not die through heat nor cold.”
(ll. 111–136.)
It is to this world that she urges him to raise his mind, for all that
earth has to offer is a vain shadow.
“But thou who vulgar footsteps dost not trace,
Learn to raise up thy mind unto this place,
And what earth-creeping mortals most affect,
If not at all to scorn, yet to neglect:
O chase not shadows vain, which when obtain’d,
Were better lost, than with such travail gain’d.”
(ll. 181–186.)
These shadows are worldly honor and fame.
At this point the poem naturally passes on to develop the second
suggestion found in Platonism, that the beauty of earth is but a shadow
or reflexion of the absolute beauty. As was common in that time, this
absolute beauty is identified with God. Accordingly, the young woman
appeals to Drummond to trust in God’s beauty, which alone can fill the
soul with bliss. If the power of earthly beauty—the glance of an eye—can
make him leave all else, what, she asks, must be the love kindled by the
“only Fair”; for though the wonders of earth, of sea, and heaven are
beautiful, they are but shadows of Him.
“O leave that love which reachest but to dust,
And in that love eternal only trust,
And beauty, which, when once it is possest,
Can only fill the soul, and make it blest.
Pale envy, jealous emulations, fears,
Sighs, plaints, remorse, here have no place, nor tears;
False joys, vain hopes, here be not, hate nor wrath;
What ends all love, here most augments it, death.
If such force had the dim glance of an eye,
Which some few days thereafter was to die,
That it could make thee leave all other things,
And like the taper-fly there burn thy wings;
· · · · ·
If once thou on that only Fair couldst gaze,
What flames of love would he within thee raise!
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