Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Textual Note
- Introduction
- 1 Doris, or the Shepherd’s Complaint
- 2 To Anna R.[oemers]
- 3 [From] Batava Tempe: That Is the Lime-avenue of The Hague
- 4 The Exiled Shepherd: To the Lord Daniel Heinsius, Knight etc.
- 5 The Character of an Ambassador
- 6 Ship’s Talk, on the Death of Prince Maurits
- 7 To the Lady Tesselschade Crombalch with My Translations from the English Poems of Dr Donne
- 8 To Barlaeus
- 9 On the Death of Tesselschade’s Eldest Daughter, and on Her Husband Thereafter Bleeding to Death
- 10 The White Moon
- 11 The Mist Descending
- 12 The First Stone of the Marksmen’s School in The Hague, Laid by Prince William of Orange, on the Day of Public Prayer, 2 December 1636
- 13 To Stella, My Dearest Wife, Now Dead
- 14 [From] The Day’s Work: The Order of the House
- 15 In Her Snow-cold Arms
- 16 Prayer for the Holy Communion
- 17 The Lake
- 18 The Holy Communion
- 19 New Year
- 20 Good Friday
- 21 Pentecost
- 22 Christmas
- 23 Easter
- 24 To Tesselschade
- 25 On the Roses of the Most Eminent Painter, Daniel Seegers
- 26 To Tesselschade, Departing
- 27 To Albert Dürer on His Engraved Picture
- 28 On the Holy Communion
- 29 Again on the Holy Communion
- 30 [From] Hofwijk
- 31 Awakening
- 32 To the Lady Luchtenburgh, with My Poems Translated from the English of Donne
- 33 Again on Painting
- 34 On the Frontispiece of Korenbloemen
- 35 On the Grave of Jacob van Campen
- 36 The Vanity of Dreams
- 37 On an Engraved Glass
- 38 On My Birthday
- 39 Consolation of the Eyes, to the Lady of St Annaland
- 40 On the Holy Communion
- 41 Stillness and Snow after Storm and High Water
- 42 My Puppy’s Epitaph
- Appendix I A Selection of Huygens’ Poems in Modern European Languages
- Appendix II A Selection of Huygens’ Writings in English
- Appendix III Huygens and English Literature
- Appendix IV Additional Poems on Painting
- Bibliography
- Index of Titles and First Lines
- Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age
4 - The Exiled Shepherd: To the Lord Daniel Heinsius, Knight etc.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Textual Note
- Introduction
- 1 Doris, or the Shepherd’s Complaint
- 2 To Anna R.[oemers]
- 3 [From] Batava Tempe: That Is the Lime-avenue of The Hague
- 4 The Exiled Shepherd: To the Lord Daniel Heinsius, Knight etc.
- 5 The Character of an Ambassador
- 6 Ship’s Talk, on the Death of Prince Maurits
- 7 To the Lady Tesselschade Crombalch with My Translations from the English Poems of Dr Donne
- 8 To Barlaeus
- 9 On the Death of Tesselschade’s Eldest Daughter, and on Her Husband Thereafter Bleeding to Death
- 10 The White Moon
- 11 The Mist Descending
- 12 The First Stone of the Marksmen’s School in The Hague, Laid by Prince William of Orange, on the Day of Public Prayer, 2 December 1636
- 13 To Stella, My Dearest Wife, Now Dead
- 14 [From] The Day’s Work: The Order of the House
- 15 In Her Snow-cold Arms
- 16 Prayer for the Holy Communion
- 17 The Lake
- 18 The Holy Communion
- 19 New Year
- 20 Good Friday
- 21 Pentecost
- 22 Christmas
- 23 Easter
- 24 To Tesselschade
- 25 On the Roses of the Most Eminent Painter, Daniel Seegers
- 26 To Tesselschade, Departing
- 27 To Albert Dürer on His Engraved Picture
- 28 On the Holy Communion
- 29 Again on the Holy Communion
- 30 [From] Hofwijk
- 31 Awakening
- 32 To the Lady Luchtenburgh, with My Poems Translated from the English of Donne
- 33 Again on Painting
- 34 On the Frontispiece of Korenbloemen
- 35 On the Grave of Jacob van Campen
- 36 The Vanity of Dreams
- 37 On an Engraved Glass
- 38 On My Birthday
- 39 Consolation of the Eyes, to the Lady of St Annaland
- 40 On the Holy Communion
- 41 Stillness and Snow after Storm and High Water
- 42 My Puppy’s Epitaph
- Appendix I A Selection of Huygens’ Poems in Modern European Languages
- Appendix II A Selection of Huygens’ Writings in English
- Appendix III Huygens and English Literature
- Appendix IV Additional Poems on Painting
- Bibliography
- Index of Titles and First Lines
- Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age
Summary
On the chalk-white strand of Britain,
Where the sun to southwards burns,
To which shores our Flemish lowlands
Were connected, long ago
(If we may believe the theories
Of deep scholars of our days,
Who are looking to the cradle
Of the world before the flood):
At the foot of those chalk-cliffs which
Stand against the gnawing waves
Of the driving northern breakers
In their brackish ebb and flow,
And their light-foot springing waters,
And their rippling assault –
There a shepherd-boy of Holland
Sadly lay, by grief brought low.
Love's conceits their youthful burden
Never laid upon his soul,
Of a thousand youthful hearts, his
Heart alone remained his own
And that eye was not created,
(Or at least was not yet found)
That his own eye would gaze into,
Before Heaven ordained the hour.
Sharper grief than lover's grieving,
Pleasurable melancholy,
Cut his breathing into sighing
And disolved his eyes in tears.
Those whose grief is sensual weeping
Love to flaunt their lovers’ woes,
Shows and follies do not join with
Silent grieving and real pain.
Klachten van verijlde koppen,
Stenens-kunst, verweende sangh,
Tranen van gemaeckte droppen
Soecken allesins ‘tgedrangh:
Hij was rijckelick te vreden
Met de tuijghen die hij vond,
Van sijn’ ongeveijnsde reden;
Son en hemel, zee en grond.
Ebbe, seijd’ hij (’tgingh van ebbe)
Dubbeldaeghse water-beurt,
Die ick lieff en liever hebbe
Om de kielen die ghij beurt
Met de Westelijcke vlaghen
Naer de deuren vanden Rhijn,
Die nu zes mael zestich daghen
Mijnes onbevaren zijn;
Als ghij daer mijn’ overburen
Naeste reijs genaken sult,
En haer’ bancken overschuren
Die de droochte nu vermult;
Seght hun, Ebb’, op mijn bevelen
Hoe 't haer balling-borgher gaet,
Hoeder in sijn’ vochte schelen
Stadich 't volle springh-Tij staet.
Hoe sijn’ sorghen altijdt wacker,
Hoe sijn’ suchten altijdt vers
's Vaderlandts bebloeijden acker
Overwandelen van verrs;
Hoe sijn’ rusteloose nachten
Mijmeringhen sonder end,
Knoopen zijn van werr-gedachten,
Schilderijen van ellend:
Empty heads are always moaning,
Artful mourning, sensual song,
Facile, fabricated tear-drops,
These an audience require;
But the shepherd was contented
With the auditors he found,
For his unfeigned lamentation:
Sun and sky and sea and strand.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Selection of the Poems of Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687)Revised, Second Edition, pp. 90 - 101Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2015