An Ode to Ben Jonson

An Ode to Ben Jonson

Original Text
Robert Herrick, Hesperides (London: for John Williams and F. Eglesfield to be sold by Thomas Hunt, 1648), of which a section called "His Noble Numbers: or, his Pious Pieces" has a separate title-page dated 1647. Facs. edn. Menston: Scolar, 1969. PR 3512 H4 1648A ROBA
1                    Ah Ben!
2                Say how, or when
3                Shall we thy guests
4           Meet at those lyric feasts
5                Made at the Sun,
6           The Dog, the Triple Tun?
7           Where we such clusters had
8      As made us nobly wild, not mad;
9           And yet each verse of thine
10Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine.
11                     My Ben
12                Or come again,
13                Or send to us
14           Thy wit's great overplus;
15                But teach us yet
16           Wisely to husband it;
17           Lest we that talent spend,
18      And having once brought to an end
19           That precious stock, the store
20Of such a wit the world should have no more.

Notes

5] names of London inns. Back to Line
7] clusters: of grapes, i.e., wine. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1648
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
3RP 1.204-05.
Form
Regular Ode