Douglas Brooks-Davies
Author of Robert Herrick
About the Author
Works by Douglas Brooks-Davies
No title 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1942
- Gender
- male
- Country (for map)
- United Kingdom
- Birthplace
- Wimbledon, South London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- United Kingdom
- Education
- Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby, UK
Brasenose College, Oxford
University of Liverpool (PhD) - Occupations
- Lecturer in English Literature
author
editor
composer - Relationships
- Brooks-Davies, Mary (spouse)
- Organizations
- The University of Manchester
- Short biography
- His hobbies include gardening, singing, and playing the oboe.
Members
Reviews
Lists
Statistics
- Works
- 11
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 139
- Popularity
- #147,351
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 18
And liks't the best? Still thou reply'st, 'The Dead.'" This is Martial, " Miraris veteres," 8.69. An Anglican minister whose Devon church and house-in-exile still stand just off the main highway (at Dean Prior), he wrote the most famous Cavalier poem on erection, "The Vine." This uses a dream and a gardening metaphor, 'Me thought, her long small legs and thighs / I with my tendrils did surprise," and concludes,"And with the fancy I awook; /And found (Ah me!)
this mortal part of mine / More like a Stock than like a Vine."
To sum his genius, see him fit Latinate, ponderous words into light, short meter, four beat lines: "When as in silks my Julia goes / Then, then (me thinks) how sweetly flows / The liquefation of her clothes."
My personal favorite shows Herrick the clergyman syncretizing classical and Christian gods: "The gods require the thighs / Of beeves for sacrifice /
Which roasted, we the steam / High-towering raise to them, / Who, though they do not eat, / Yet love the smell of meat." Something deeply personal as well as professional here; Herrick combines his asceticism and his sensuality in another syncretism.… (more)