If anyone's being obscure, it's not Purcell. The poem is the 20th stanza of a French poem, La Solitude A Alcidon translated by the 17th-century English writer Katherine Philips, who published under the name Orinda. You might want to look over the first 19 stanzas.
You can find the French and English versions here: http://www.jimandellen.org/womenspoetry/solitude.html Philips titled her translation "La Solitude de St. Amant" which seems to be a reference to St. Amand, the 6th-century monk and missionary who forsook his wealthy family and founded monasteries in Belgium. On Nov 8, 2011, at 11:36 AM, Peter Nightingale wrote: > From the desk of H. Purcell, the Obscure: > > O, how I solitude adore! > That element of noblest wit, > Where I have learnt Apollo's lore, > Without the pains to study it. > For thy sake I in love am grown > With what thy fancy does pursue; > But when I think upon my own, > I hate it for that reason too, > Because it needs must hinder me > From seeing and from serving thee. > O solitude, O how I solitude adore! > > Does anyone know what is "Apollo's lore." I guess that it's something > that life teaches so that on does not have to go through the pain of > studying it, but, really, pretty clueless. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
