An Ode to Himself
By Ben Jonson
Where dost thou careless lie,
Buried in ease and sloth?
Knowledge that sleeps doth die;
And this security,
It is the common moth
That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.
Are all th' Aonian springs
Dried up? lies Thespia waste?
Doth Clarius' harp want strings,
That not a nymph now sings?
Or droop they as disgrac'd,
To see their seats and bowers by chatt'ring pies defac'd?
If hence thy silence be,
As 'tis too just a cause,
Let this thought quicken thee:
Minds that are great and free
Should not on fortune pause;
'Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.
What though the greedy fry
Be taken with false baites
Of worded balladry,
And think it poesy?
They die with their conceits,
And only piteous scorn upon their folly waits.
Then take in hand thy lyre,
Strike in thy proper strain,
With Japhet's line aspire
Sol's chariot for new fire,
To give the world again;
Who aided him will thee, the issue of Jove's brain.
And since our dainty age
Cannot endure reproof,
Make not thyself a page
To that strumpet, the stage,
But sing high and aloof,
Safe from the wolf's black jaw and the dull ass's hoof.
NOTESForm: abaabb1.Works, 1640. The contempt for the stage expressed in the last stanza suggests a fairly late date, ca. 1630, when Jonson became exasperated with the negative response to his plays in the theatre. 7. Aonian springs: the fountains of poetry. Aonia is a part of Boeotia which includes Mount Helicon and the fountains of Aganippe and Hippocrene, sacred to the Muses.8.Thespia: the realm of tragedy; derived from Thespis, the Greek poet. 9. Clarius: Apollo, god of poetry and music, named from his temple and oracle at Claros. SeeÆ;neid, III, 360. 12. pies: magpies\; a term of contempt. 21. worded balladry. Jonson is probably not referring to genuine and anonymous ballads here, but to broadside ballads, extremely popular among the middle class. 27. Japhet: Prometheus, son of Japetus. aspire: inspire. 30. the issue of Jove's brain: Minerva.