...invitation poem and as a contribution to Puritan debates about the desirability of leisure. The poem ends: "He who of those delights can judge, and spare / To interpose them oft, is not unwise." Modern scholars cannot decide whether "spare to" should be paraphrased as 'refrain from' or as 'spare...

...taste, with wine, whence we may rise To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice. Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? He who of those delights can...judge, and spare To interpose them oft is not unwise.' Nobody will be bold enough to say, that there are not some beautiful thoughts, and some good versification...

...taste, with wine, whence we may rise To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? He who of those delights can...judge, and spare To interpose them oft, is not unwise. — from a sonnet by John Milton (1608-1674) To Edna Like a father talking to his son or daughter,...

...without transgression" (CPW 1:890). The sonnet ends with a gnomic distillation of its moderate ethos: "He who of those delights can judge, and spare / To interpose them oft, is not unwise" (ll. 13-14). Critics have long disputed as to whether "spare" means "refrain" or "afford (time)," though...

...we may rise0 To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air?0 He who of those delights can judge, and spare To interpose them oft, is not unwise.0 Sonnrt 18 Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench Of British Themis, with no mean applause0...

...strong and enlarged philosophy of Art, so that we may philanthropically coincide with Milton, that — He who of those delights can judge, and spare To interpose them oft — is not unwise.3 3 He who ... is not unwise] from Milton, Sonnet XVII ('Lawrence of virtuous father virtuous...