Not all die early, dying young－1
Maturity of Fate
Is consummated equally
In Ages, or a Night－
A Hoary Boy, I've known to drop 5
Whole statured－by the side
Of Junior of Fourscore－'twas Act
Not Period－that died.
Maturity of Fate
Is consummated equally
In Ages, or a Night－
A Hoary Boy, I've known to drop 5
Whole statured－by the side
Of Junior of Fourscore－'twas Act
Not Period－that died.
(F.937/J.990)
[1] die:: to perish, lose the passion of life. dying young:: a man naive in thoughts. young:: a hint on Edward Young.
[4] Night:: a hint on the book Night Thoughts by Edward Young (1683–1765).
[5] Hoary Boy:: an old man with a boyish mind. Hoary:: musty, pedantic in his writing. "He was too fond of antithesis, and often too turgid in his style" as in the quote below.
[6] statured:: related to the ability.
[7] Fourscore:: 80; Edward died at 82.
The principal work of Edward Young is the Night Thoughts. This poem, by some critics, has been pronounced mournful, angry, gloomy, and represented as springing from disappointed ambition rather than from superior sentiments. It is thought, however to exhibit a wide display of original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and striking allusions－a wildness of thought, in which the fertility of fancy scatters flowers of every hue and of every odor. He was too fond of antithesis, and often too turgid in his style; yet he paints, with the most lively fancy, the feeling of the heart, the vanity of human things, its fleeting honors and enjoyments, and he presents some of the strongest arguments in support of the immortality of the soul. ─ Elements of Rhetoric and Literary Criticism (1862)