Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a telescope?
Though God be our true glass through which we see
All, since the being of all things is He,
Yet are the trunks, which do to us derive
Things in proportion fit, by perspective
Deeds of good men; for by their living here,
Virtues, indeed remote, seem to be near.
Who would imagine it possible that in a very few lines so many remote ideas could be brought together?
Since ’tis my doom, love’s undershrieve,
Why this reprieve?
Why doth my she advowson fly
Incumbency?
To sell thyself dust thou intend
By candles end,
And hold the contract thus in doubt,
Life’s taper out?
Think but how soon the market fails,
Your sex lives faster than the males;
And if to measure age’s span,
The sober Julian were th’ account of man,
Whilst you live by the fleet Gregorian.—Cleveland.
Of enormous and disgusting hyperboles, these may be examples:
By every wind that comes this way,
Send me at least a sigh or two,
Such and so many I’ll repay
As shall themselves make winds to get to you.—Cowley.In tears I’ll waste these eyes,
By love so vainly fed:
So lust of old the deluge punished.—Cowley.All arm’d in brass, the richest dress of war,
(A dismal glorious sight!) he shone afar.
The sun himself started with sudden fright,
To see his beams return so dismal bright.—Cowley.
A universal consternation:
His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws
Tear up the ground; then runs he wild about,
Lashing his angry tail and roaring out.
Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there;
Trees, though no wind is stirring, shake with fear;
Silence and horror fill the place around;
Echo itself dares scarce repeat the sound.—Cowley.
Their fictions were often violent and unnatural.
Of his mistress bathing: