Ben Jonson's "Song to Celia"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Today’s poem from Ben Jonson (also know by its first line, “Drink to me only with thine eyes”) has been arranged and set to music numerous times, and become so familiar that it is often recognizable even to those who no longer associate it with Jonson himself.

Jonson’s circle of admirers and friends, who called themselves the “Tribe of Ben,” met regularly at the Mermaid Tavern and later at the Devil’s Head. Among his followers were nobles such as the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, as well as writers, including Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, James Howell, and Thomas Carew. Most of his well-known poems include tributes to friends, notably Shakespeare, John Donne, and Francis Bacon.

When Jonson died in 1637, a tremendous crowd of mourners attended his burial at Westminster Abbey. He is regarded as one of the major dramatists and poets of the seventeenth century.

-bio via Academy of American Poets

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. I'm Sean Johnson, and today is February 15th,
0:07.4	2004. Today's poem is by the great Elizabethan rival to Shakespeare himself, Ben Johnson, and it's called
0:18.2	Song to Celia, though it's often better known by its first line, drink to me only with thine eyes.
0:29.0	Here it is one time through, and I'll say a few things about it, and we'll finish off with one more reading.
0:37.1	Song to Celia.
0:38.3	Drink to me only with thine eyes and I will pledge with mine, or leave a kiss but
0:47.3	in the cup, and I'll not look for wine.
0:50.3	The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine,
0:54.9	But might I of Jove's nectar sup, I would not change for thine.
1:00.3	I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
1:03.4	Not so much honoring thee as giving it a hope that there it could not withered be.
1:09.4	But thou thereon didst only breathe
1:11.2	and sense it back to me,
1:13.4	since when it grows and smells,
1:15.3	I swear not of itself but thee.
1:38.7	Though this particular poem might seem like an unlikely candidate for carrying the torch of Ben Johnson's fame through the ages, so far it has done a lot of that heavy lifting. Johnson, who had a,
1:49.8	or was attached to a rival play production company, putting on plays at a rival theater in London,
1:58.6	often to the frustration of William Shakespeare, who had
2:06.4	his own following of artistic, known affectionately as the tribe of Ben or the sons of Johnson.
2:16.3	No relation, as far as I know. The fact is Ben Johnson is woefully
2:26.4	underread and appreciated both as a playwright and a poet today. I hope that that isn't always the case.
2:36.5	It's hard living in the shadow of William Shakespeare, both in life and in death, but so far Johnson has endured it with aplomb.
	...

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