Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honor but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying.
If all the world be worth thy winning.
Think, oh think it worth enjoying:
Lovely Thaïs sits beside thee,
Take the good the gods provide thee." - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
ll. 97–106
“

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honor but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying.
If all the world be worth thy winning.
Think, oh think it worth enjoying:
Lovely Thaïs sits beside thee,
Take the good the gods provide thee.

— John Dryden

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honor but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying.
If all the world be worth thy winning.
Think, oh think it worth enjoying:
Lovely Thaïs sits beside thee,
Take the good the gods provide thee." in the context of "ll. 97–106" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "John Dryden" (Quotes, Alexander's Feast (1697)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#John Dryden#still#worth#beginningfighting#enjoyinglovely#measuressoon#pleasureswar#troublehonor#destroyingif#winningthink#bubblenever#theetake
John Dryden

About John Dryden

John Dryden (19 August O.S. 9 August 1631 – 12 May O.S. 1 May 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.