{"id":599,"date":"2009-05-07T22:07:59","date_gmt":"2009-05-07T22:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meeseeks:5080\/blog\/?p=599"},"modified":"2009-05-07T22:07:59","modified_gmt":"2009-05-07T22:07:59","slug":"poem-scorn-not-the-least","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/poem-scorn-not-the-least\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: Scorn Not the Least"},"content":{"rendered":"

The turn of the month allows the posting of\u00a0a poem by Robert Southwell SJ with a reference to May flowers.\u00a0\u00a0 The reference to Dives and Lazar in Stanza 4 is a reference\u00a0to the story<\/a> in Luke 16: 19-31.\u00a0 Southwell’s personal history as an aristocratic gentleman (which he used as cover while underground in Elizabeth’s police-state) is evident in the references to nature and country pursuits.<\/p>\n

Scorn Not the Least<\/em>
\nWhere wards are weak and foes encountring strong
\nWhere mightier do assault than do defend,
\nThe feebler part puts up enforc\u00e8d wrong
\nAnd silent sees that speech could not amend.
\nYet higher powers must think, though they repine,
\nWhen sun is set, the little stars will shine.
\nWhile pike doth range the seely tench doth fly,
\nAnd crouch in privy creeks with smaller fish.
\nYet pikes are caught when little fish go by,
\nThese fleet afloat while those do fill the dish.
\nThere is a time even for the worm to creep,
\nAnd suck the dew while all her foes do sleep.
\nThe merlin cannot ever soar on high,
\nNor greedy greyhound still pursue the chase.
\nThe tender lark will find a time to fly,
\nAnd fearful hare to run a quiet race.
\nHe that high growth on cedars did bestow,
\nGave also lowly mushrumps leave to grow.
\nIn Aman’s pomp poor Mardocheus wept,
\nYet God did turn his fate upon his foe.
\nThe Lazar pined while Dives’ feast was kept,
\nYet he to Heaven, to Hell did Dives go.
\nWe trample grass, and prize the flowers of May,
\nYet grass is green when flowers do fade away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

References:<\/em>
\nChristopher Devlin [1956]: The Life of Robert Southwell: Poet and Martyr<\/em>.\u00a0 New York, NY, USA:\u00a0 Farrar, Straus and Cudahy.
\nRobert Southwell [2007]:\u00a0 Collected Poems.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 Edited by Peter Davidson and Anne Sweeney.\u00a0 Manchester, UK:\u00a0 Fyfield Books.
\n(Note:\u00a0 I have modernised the spelling where sensible to do so, and added some punctuation.)<\/em>
\nA previous poem by Robert Southwell\u00a0can be found\u00a0here<\/a>, and all previous poetry posts here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The turn of the month allows the posting of\u00a0a poem by Robert Southwell SJ with a reference to May flowers.\u00a0\u00a0 The reference to Dives and Lazar in Stanza 4 is a reference\u00a0to the story in Luke 16: 19-31.\u00a0 Southwell’s personal history as an aristocratic gentleman (which he used as cover while underground in Elizabeth’s police-state) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","p1","y2009","m05","d07","h22"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}