THE PERFECT LIFE

 

THE PERFECT LIFE

‘The Perfect Life’ is the title of a short poem written by the English poet-

playwright Ben Jonson. He was born in June 1572 and died in August 1937 and

was , in a way, a contemporary of Shakespeare.

 

              In the poem which is given below, he says that to be perfect life does not need long years. As an example, he compares the short  but perfect life of a lily flower with that of the imperfect long life of an oak tree. A lily blooms only for one day and exhibits all its   beauty. An oak stands on earth for three hundred years but ultimately falls like a mere log ‘dry, bald, and sere.’

 

Here is the complete poem:

 

It is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make Man better be;

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

To fall a log at last dry, bald, and sere.

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.

In small proportions we just beauties see

And in short measures life may perfect be.

 

 

 

G.R. Kanwal

6^TH May 2024