My Picture Left in Scotland

Charles Mellin

The Tuscan General Alessandro del Borro

My Picture Left in Scotland

I now thinke, Love is rather deafe, than blind,

For else it could not be,

That she,

Whom I adore so much, should so slight me,

And cast my love behind:

I'm sure my language to her, was as sweet,

And every close did meet

In sentence, of as subtile feet

As hath the youngest Hee,

That sits in shadow of Apollo's tree.

Oh, but my conscious feares,

That flie my thoughts betweene,

Tell me that she hath seene

My hundreds of gray haires,

Told seven and fortie yeares,

Read so much wast, as she cannot imbrace

My mountaine belly and my rockie face,

And all these through her eyes, have stopt her eares.

~ Ben Jonson ~

The Nobel Nature

Diego Rivera

Nude with Calla Lilies

The Nobel Nature

It is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make man better be;

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:

A lily of a day

Is fairer far in May,

Although it fall and die that night --

It was the plant and flower of Light.

In small proportions we just beauties see;

And in short measures life may perfect be.

~ Ben Jonson ~