RPO -- Ben Jonson : An Ode to Himself

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

An Ode to Himself

1Where dost thou careless lie,

2Buried in ease and sloth?

3Knowledge that sleeps doth die;

4And this security,

5It is the common moth

6That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.

7Are all th' Aonian springs

8Dried up? lies Thespia waste?

9Doth Clarius' harp want strings,

10That not a nymph now sings?

11Or droop they as disgrac'd,

12To see their seats and bowers by chatt'ring pies defac'd?

13If hence thy silence be,

14As 'tis too just a cause,

15Let this thought quicken thee:

16Minds that are great and free

17Should not on fortune pause;

18'Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.

19What though the greedy fry

20Be taken with false baites

21Of worded balladry,

22And think it poesy?

23They die with their conceits,

24And only piteous scorn upon their folly waits.

25Then take in hand thy lyre,

26Strike in thy proper strain,

27With Japhet's line aspire

28Sol's chariot for new fire,

29To give the world again;

30Who aided him will thee, the issue of Jove's brain.

31And since our dainty age

32Cannot endure reproof,

33Make not thyself a page

34To that strumpet, the stage,

35But sing high and aloof,

36Safe from the wolf's black jaw and the dull ass's hoof.

Notes

1] Works, 1640. The contempt for the stage expressed in the last stanza suggests a fairly late date, ca. 1630, when Jonson became exasperated with the negative response to his plays in the theatre.

7] Aonian springs: the fountains of poetry. Aonia is a part of Boeotia which includes Mount Helicon and the fountains of Aganippe and Hippocrene, sacred to the Muses.

8] Thespia: the realm of tragedy; derived from Thespis, the Greek poet.

9] Clarius: Apollo, god of poetry and music, named from his temple and oracle at Claros. SeeÆneid, III, 360.

12] pies: magpies; a term of contempt.

21] worded balladry. Jonson is probably not referring to genuine and anonymous ballads here, but to broadside ballads, extremely popular among the middle class.

27] Japhet: Prometheus, son of Japetus.
aspire: inspire.

30] the issue of Jove's brain: Minerva.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Ben Jonson, The workes of Benjamin Jonson (London: R. Bishop, sold by A. Crooke, 1640). STC 14754. stc Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto). Also British Library copy as microfilmed in English Books 1475-1640. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. P & R 14754 * 20250.
First publication date: 1640
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.159.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/3

Form: Horatian Ode
Rhyme: abaabb

Other poems by Ben Jonson