Page 4 of 4 <

Poet's Choice

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Thy Lovers were all untrue.

'Tis well an Old Age is out,

And time to begin a New.

And then Dryden's masque ends with a "Dance of Huntsmen, Nymphs, Warriours, and Lovers."

Anyone eager to apply this little 17th-century scene to the wars and amours of the present, as chronicled in the newspaper stories of 2006, should reflect on the figure of Diana, whose "chase had a beast in view," which suggests that all human pursuits, compared to their first, beautiful, newborn hopes, may become somewhat beastly.

(John Dryden's "The Secular Masque" can be found

in collections of his work.)

Robert Pinsky was Poet Laureate of the United States from 1997 through 2000.

< 4

Find More Reviews and Features in Books

War stripped of all its glory

In "The Good Soldiers," Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Finkel faced an unenviable task in writing his on-the-ground account of war in Iraq.

Who do men say that I am?

Though too cursory to work as an intro to the Gospels, Mary Gordon's "Reading Jesus" should appeal to anyone who wants to wrestle with the problems and paradoxes of the New Testament.