I have no idea how seriously to take today’s poem <g>. The ending is a wonderful piece of irony, but it is a pointed irony that highlights how perceptively the poem captures the pattern of many a relationship, so that I have to wonder how much of bitterness the poet’s humour was infused with, and where exactly it falls along the spectrum from light to biting satire. ‘Tongue in cheek’ is the phrase that springs to mind, but I’d hesitate to apply it.

Either way, though, I like it - it’s a delightful poem, particularly the last three lines, which have that unmistakable ring of a poet having found precisely the right words. Quotable to a fault.

Biography

  Sedley, Sir Charles, 4th Baronet
  b. March 1639, Aylesford, Kent, Eng.
  d. Aug. 20, 1701, Hampstead, London
  English Restoration poet, dramatist, wit, and courtier.

Sedley attended the University of Oxford but left without taking a degree. He inherited the baronetcy on the death of his elder brother. After the Restoration (1660) he was a prominent member of the group of court wits. Charles II delighted in his conversation. The dramatists John Dryden and Thomas Shadwell were among his friends, and Dryden introduced him into his essay Of Dramatick Poesie under the name of Lisideius. Sedley was an active supporter of William and Mary at the time of the 1688 revolution. In later life he seems to have become a serious legislator. He sat in all the parliaments of William III as member for New Romney, and his speeches were considered to be thoughtful and sensible.

Sedley’s plays span the period 1668-87; notable among them is Bellamira (1687), a racy, amusing rehandling of the theme of the Eunuchus of the Roman playwright Terence. Sedley’s literary reputation, however, rests on his lyrics and verse translations. His best lyrics, such as the well-known “Phillis is my only Joy,” have grace and charm. His verse translations of the eighth ode of Book II of Horace and the fourth Georgic of Virgil have been highly praised. The first collected edition of his works was published in 1702; a later one, edited by Vivian de Sola Pinto, in two volumes, was published in 1928 with a study of the author.

Sedley’s son predeceased him, and the baronetcy became extinct upon Sedley’s death.

– EB

Links and such:

I am reminded of Parker’s ‘Unfortunate Coincidence’:

http://www.skelly10.com/words/poems.html#Unfortunate

Read more of Sedley’s poems at the Poets’ Corner:

http://www.geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems/poem-st.html

— Martin