Donne, the delight of Phoebus and each Muse
Who, to thy one, all other brains refuse;
Whose every work of thy most early wit
Came forth example, and remains so yet;
Longer a-knowing than most wits do live;
And which no affection praise enough can give!
To it, thy language, letters, arts, best life,
Which might with half mankind maintain a strife.
All which I meant to praise, and yet I would;
But leave, because I cannot as I should!
Ben Jonson’s “Song to Celia” is known to millions as “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes.” Jonson was educated at the prestigious Westminster School in London. He took up acting, and by 1597 he was writing original plays. Jonson’s first widely acclaimed play, Every Man in His Humour, included William Shakespeare in its cast.
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Poems by Ben Jonson
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More poems by Ben Jonson (35 poems)
- A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth
- An Elegy
- An Epitaph on S.P.
- An Ode to Himself
- Cynthia's Revels: Queen and huntress, chaste and fair
- Epicoene, or the Silent Woman: Still to be neat, still to be drest
- Epigrams: On my First Son
- Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.
- Inviting a Friend to Supper
- My Picture Left in Scotland
- Ode to Himself
- On English Monsieur
- On Gut
- On My First Daughter
- On Playwright
- On Spies
- Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount
- Song to Celia
- Song: To Celia
- Though I Am Young and Cannot Tell
- To Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland
- To Fool or Knave
- To Heaven
- To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with John Donne's Satires
- To Penshurst
- To Sir Henry Cary
- To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of That Noble Pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison
- To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare
- To the Reader
- Volpone: Come my Celia, let us prove
Poem of the Day: My Picture Left in Scotland
