John Denham
The seventeenth century in England was a period of profound political turbulence and literary realignment, as poets and public figures navigated civil war, exile, and the eventual restoration of the monarchy. Into this unsettled world came John Denham, born in Dublin in 1615, a man who moved across the overlapping worlds of law, politics, and verse.
Educated at Trinity College, Denham trained as a lawyer and went on to work as both a politician and a poet, writing in the English language throughout his career. These three vocations — legal, political, and literary — shaped the professional life he conducted against the backdrop of one of England's most contested centuries. He composed poetry while also participating in the public and civic affairs of his day, a combination reflected in the range of his recorded roles.
Denham's standing was recognized in ways that reached beyond any single profession. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, placing him among those acknowledged by both the crown and the emerging institutions of English intellectual life. He died in London, and it is these two honors — one civic, one learned — that mark the formal recognition his career received.
Quotes by John Denham
It is no exaggeration to say that Israeli policy in the occupied territories is not simply a matter of foreign policy – it is a matter for British domestic security policy too,.
But whither am I strayed? I need not raise Trophies to thee from other men’s dispraise; Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built; Nor needs thy juster title the foul guilt Of Eastern kings, who, to secure their reign, Must have their brothers, sons, and kindred slain.
Youth, what man’s age is like to be, doth show; We may our ends by our beginnings know.
Learn to live well, that thou may'st die so too; To live and die is all we have to do.
Tis the most certain sign, the world's accurst That the best things corrupted, are the worst; 'Twas the corrupted Light of knowledge, hurl'd Sin, Death, and Ignorance o'er all the world; That Sun like this (from which our sight we have) Gaz'd on too long, resumes the light he gave.
Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate, That few, but such as cannot write, translate.
It is no exaggeration to say that Israeli policy in the occupied territories is not simply a matter of foreign policy - it is a matter for British domestic security policy too,.
Who fears not to do ill fears the name, And free from conscience, is a slave to fame.
Sure there are poets which did never dream Upon Parnassus, nor did taste the stream Of Helicon; we therefore may suppose Those made not poets, but the poets those.