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Home  »  Parnassus  »  Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Song: ‘How near to good is what is fair’

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

HOW near to good is what is fair,

Which we no sooner see,

But with the lines and outward air

Our senses taken be.

We wish to see it still, and prove

What ways we may deserve;

We court, we praise, we more than love,

We are not grieved to serve.