An Extempore upon a Faggot
"An Extempore upon a Faggot" is an eight-line poem of unknown authorship dating from the mid-17th century. It has been attributed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, John Dryden, John Milton, and Sir John Suckling.
In September 2010, Jennifer Batt, lecturer in English at Jesus College, Oxford, published a version of the poem found in the 1708 Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems,[1] part of the Harding Collection at the Bodleian Library.[2] The original anthology attributes this version to John Milton.[3]
Text of poem
Have you not in a Chimney seen
A Faggot which is moist and green
How coyly it receives the Heat
And at both ends do’s weep and sweat?
So fares it with a tender Maid
When first upon her Back she’s laid
But like dry Wood th’ experienced Dame
Cracks and rejoices in the Flame.
Notes
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- ↑ Fenton, Elijah, ed. (1708). Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems. p. 286.
- ↑ "Archive of irreverent miscellanies put online". University of Oxford. 23 September 2010. Archived from the original on 26 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
- ↑ Rimbault, Edward F. (1869). "Miltoniana". Notes and Queries. Oxford University Press: 421.
References
- Hunter, William Bridges, ed. (1983). A Milton encyclopedia. 3. Bucknell University Press. p. 102. ISBN 0-8387-1836-1.
- Singh, Anita (23 September 2010). "John Milton's bawdy poem questioned". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-26.