THE NOBLE NATURE

 

 

THE  NOBLE  NATURE

“The Noble Nature” is a garden poem written by the English playwright and poet Ben Jonson who was born at Westminster on 11 June 1572 and died there on 16 August 1637.  He was a contemporary of Shakespeare (1564-1616) and  one of his few admirers at that time.

Though nearly 400 years have passed since the poem was written, its freshness has not faded  and the eternal message which  it conveys has remained undiminished.  

The central idea of the poem is about short and long life. Which of the two is better and on what basis? Jonson says:

“It is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make man better be;

Or standing like an oak, three hundred year,

To fall a log at last, dry, bald and seer:”

 

According to him as quality in short life is better than mere magnitude in long life:

                        “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.”

 

Jonson concludes the poem with a couplet with his aesthetic viewpoint about life. It

 reads as follows:

                  “In small proportions we just beauties see;

                  And in short measures life may perfect be.”

                                   

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6^th April 2023                                                                  G. R. Kanwal