Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

 

Andrew Marvell

p                                                                     portrait (detail) by Vincent Galloway

from The Garden

What a wond’rous life in this I lead! 

Ripe apples drop about my head; 
The luscious clusters of the vine 
Upon my mouth do crush their wine; 
The nectarine and curious peach 
Into my hands themselves do reach; 
Stumbling on melons as I pass, 
Ensnar’d with flow’rs, I fall on grass. 

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, 
Withdraws into its happiness; 
The mind, that ocean where each kind 
Does straight its own resemblance find, 
Yet it creates, transcending these, 
Far other worlds, and other seas; 
Annihilating all that’s made 
To a green thought in a green shade. 

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