Social Commentaries
A comparison of a Booke, with Cheese
From The Most Elegant and Witty Epigrams (1618), Book 4
OLd Haywood writes, & proues in some degrees,
That one may wel compare a book with cheese;
euery market some buy cheese to feed on,
At euery mart some men buy bookes to read on.
All sorts eate cheese; but how? there is the question
The poore for food, the rich for good disgestion.
All sorts read bookes, but why? will you discerne?
The foole to laugh, the wiser sort to learne.
The sight, taste, sent of cheese to some is hateful,
The sight, taste, sense of bookes to some's vngrateful
No cheese there was, that euer pleas'd all feeders,
No booke there is, that euer lik't all Readers.
Codex Note
Book 4, Epigram 72
Cite this poem
MLA
Harington, John. “A comparison of a Booke, with Cheese.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/harington/239/.
Chicago
Harington, John. “A comparison of a Booke, with Cheese.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/harington/239/.
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