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TO PENSHURST.

Thou art not, PENSHURST, built to envious show
Of touch, or marble ; nor canst boast a row
Of polish’d pillars, or a roof of gold :
Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told ;
Or stair, or courts ; but stand’st an ancient pile,
And these grudg’d at, art reverenced the while.
Thou joy’st in better marks, of soil, of air,
Of wood, of water ; therein thou art fair.
Thou hast thy walks for health, as well as sport :
Thy mount, to which thy Dryads do resort, 10
Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made,
Beneath the broad beech, and the chestnut shade ;
That taller tree, which of a nut was set,
At his great birth, where all the Muses met.

DEAR love, for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream ;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy.
Therefore thou waked’st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brokest not, but continued’st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought’st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let’s act the rest.

As lightning, or a taper’s light,
Thine eyes, and not thy noise waked me;
Yet I thought thee
—For thou lovest truth—an angel, at first sight;
But when I saw thou saw’st my heart,
And knew’st my thoughts beyond an angel’s art,
When thou knew’st what I dreamt, when thou knew’st when
Excess of joy would wake me, and camest then,
I must confess, it could not choose but be
Profane, to think thee any thing but thee.

Coming and staying show’d thee, thee,
But rising makes me doubt, that now
Thou art not thou.
That love is weak where fear’s as strong as he;
‘Tis not all spirit, pure and brave,
If mixture it of fear, shame, honour have;
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal’st with me;
Thou camest to kindle, go’st to come; then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die.

72. “Death be not proud, though some have called thee”

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

XIV

Batter my heart, three-person’d God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

For the GRE, the primary metaphysical poets you should know are:

John Donne
Andrew Marvell
Richard Lovelace
George Herbert

Read more here.

Gulliver -  The narrator and protagonist of the story.

The Emperor of Lilliput – The ruler of Lilliput. Like all Lilliputians he is less than six inches tall, which makes his for the most part successful attempts to control Gulliver seem somewhat silly. He takes pride in the height of his tiny palace and his power over an army of tiny subjects, but despite its absurdity is power is still somewhat threatening. The emperor is a satire of the autocratic ruler and a well executed portrait of political power

The king of Brobdingnag - rational and intelligent, and speaks to Gulliver at length about the history and institutions of Gulliver’s native land.  in this way he is similar to the Houyhnhnms.

Lord Munodi -  A lord of Lagado, capital of the underdeveloped land beneath Laputa, who hosts Gulliver and gives him a tour of the country.

Yahoos -  Gross humanlike beasts who  serve the Houyhnhnms, who are extremely wise and intelligent horses. They are hairy, unintelligent and have extreme sexual appetites -  basically an exaggerated version of everything bad about humanity.

Houyhnhnms -  Rational horses who live in a simple, peaceful socialist republic governed by reason and honesty.  They do not even have a word for “lie” in their language.

Don Pedro de Mendez -  The Portuguese captain who takes Gulliver back to Europe after he is forced to leave the land of the Houyhnhnms. Don Pedro is kind to Gulliver, but Gulliver at this point cannot stand the company of “Yahoos”.

Brobdingnagians -  Giants whom Gulliver meets on his second voyage. Brobdingnagians are basically a reasonable and kindly people governed by a sense of justice.

The farmer -  Gulliver’s first master in Brobdingnag, where all of the people are giants. He is kind to Gulliver, but puts him on display around Brobdingnag in an attempt to profit from him. The farmer represents the average  man, yet one who is powerful only because of his immense size and physical strength.
Glumdalclitch -  The farmer’s nine-year-old daughter, who becomes Gulliver’s friend and cares for him as a kind of dull or pet.

Lilliputians and Blefuscudians -  Two warring races of miniature people whom Gulliver meets on his first voyage.

Laputans -  Absentminded intellectuals who live on the floating island of Laputa, encountered by Gulliver on his third voyage.  They are parodies of theoreticians, impractical, self-absorbed and judgmental of those who are less intelligent than themselves. the Laputans serve as a warning against the excesses of theoretical pursuits and the uselessness of purely abstract knowledge.

Richard Sympson -  Gulliver’s cousin, friend, and the editor and publisher of Gulliver’s Travels.

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