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
38 - On My Birthday
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
Once more September comes, and the fourth day,
Day when I first saw day.
How many more Septembers, and fourth days,
Lord, will you suffer me?
I ask no more: the distance that I’ve come
Is no unreasonable one:
And from my cradle to this point I’ve trod
Many thousand paces
(With falls, dear God, and risings as you know):
He who must travel through
Sufferings just as mine and joys the same
Would surely think again,
Three times, were it best done or left undone.
Lord, let me now be gone:
My part is played, and all that there can be
Of joy or misery,
Has come to me in turn, and what shall come
Shall nothing add to all.
It shall the old shadow be of things that seem,
And vanish coming near.
What do I hope on earth, why not now leave?
I wait, Lord, your reprieve.
But, add one favour more to many granted,
Let me so learn departure,
That every eye that sees the manner of my going
Would wish my death his own.
38 MS dated 5 September 1665 (Huygens 1897, pp. 89-90). One of Huygens’ many poems on his own birthday, which he seems to have used selfconsciously as an occasion for taking stock of his life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Selection of the Poems of Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687)Revised, Second Edition, pp. 230 - 231Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2015