Origins of Wednesday ii

  ..

  The circling streams, once thought but pools, of blood

  (Whether life's fuel or the body's food)

  From dark oblivion Harvey's name shall save,

  While Ent keeps all the honour that he gave.

  Nor are you, learned friend, the least renowned,

  Whose fame, not circumscribed with English ground,

  Flies like the nimble journeys of the light

  And is, like that, unspent too in its flight.

  Whatever truths have been, by art or chance,

  Redeemed from error or from ignorance,

  ..

  Such is the healing virtue of your pen,

  To perfect cures on books as well as men.

  Nor is this work the least: you well may give

  To men new vigour, who make stones to live.

  Through you, the Danes (their short dominion lost)

  A longer conquest than the Saxons boast.

  Stonehenge, once thought a temple, you have found

  A throne, where kings, our earthly gods, were crowned ..

John Dryden

To my honoured friend,

  Dr Charleton ..

  [fragment]

1662

Selected Poems

Steven N. Zwicker and

  David Bywaters, editors

Penguin Selected English Poets

op. cit.