Allen Ginsberg continues his 1980 Naropa lectures on classic English poetry
AG: – Thomas Carew – this is really pretty.. (a poem) by Carew.. lets see..
Oh no, before we get to Carew, there is another little poem by James Shirley (because that one is so good that I thought there must be other things that he’d written that are interesting). There’s another one called “The Might of Death”, another little lyric on death, which takes off from that – “then boast no more your mighty deeds” – But “The Might of Death” – from Cupid and Death – A masque called Cupid and Death (which is an interesting subject – to have Cupid against Death (and them) do a scene together) –
“Victorious men of earth no more/ Proclaim how wide your empires are./Though you bind in every shore/And your triumphs reach as far/As night or day,/Yet you, proud monarchs, must obey/And mingle with forgotten ashes when/Death calls ye to the crowd 0f common men,/ Devouring Famine, Plague, and War,/Each able to undo mankind,/Death’s servile emissaries are/Nor to these alone confined/He hath at will/ More quaint and subtle ways to kill/ “A smile or kiss , as he will use the art,/Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart” – (I guess there must have been some real hot-spot moment in “Cupid and Death”) – “A smile or kiss , as he will use the art,/Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart”
I don’t see any more (Shirley) in any of the anthology. I don’t see very much more of his work introduced, but I have a feeling he’s so perfect.
.. (And then) there’s a little funny song (of his) in the Auden (anthology) – It’s a lot like (Robert Herrick) who… It’s a love-song, I guess [from “The Imposter” (1652) – “Peace Restored”] – “You virgins that did late despair/To keep your wealth from cruel men/Tie up in silk your careless hair;/Soft peace is come again/ Now lovers eyes may gently shoot/A flame that will not kill/The drum was angry but the lute/shall whisper what you will/ Sing Io Io! for his sake/That hath restored your drooping heads;/With choice of sweetest flowers make/ A garden where he treads./Whilst we whole groves of laurel bring,/ A petty triumph for his brow/ Who is the Master of our Spring/And all the bloom we owe”– (the last lines, the last lines, are nice – “Soft peace is come again” – You virgins that did late despair/To keep your wealth from cruel men/Tie up in silk your careless hair;/Soft peace is come again” . So that’s a three-stress line that ends it.
[Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately seventy-three-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at approximately seventy-six-and-a-quarter minutes in]