Social Commentaries

UILLAINIE. Anagram, I LIVE IN AL.

by Thomas Jordan c. 1612–1685

From The Muses Melody in a Consort of Poetrie ([1680?])

Social Commentaries

I Live in al; shew me that Name
That hath a larger Anagram:
But lest some should think that I
Do assume ubiquity,
Let them know I want the Art
To be All in every part:
But yet I live in all; I know
All Languages, and Nations too:
'Tis not France with all her Apes
Can outvye me in my shapes;
I wear a Cope, I wear a Crown,
A Souldiers sword, a Lawyers gown,
And (with rev'rence be it spoke)
The Surplice and extempore cloak:
I wear a chain, sometimes a ruff,
A purple Robe, a sute of Buff:
A livery-hood, a Country coat,
A seaman's cap (whose subtle boat
Sailes with all windes, and, as I can
Change shapes, I lie in every Man,
And every Place; I live at Court,
And where an Army doth resort
(By which so many men are undon.)
I live at sea, I live in London:
In all parts of it I range,
And I alwayes keep the change;
I live in Courts of peace and war,
On the Bench, and at the Bar:
Sometimes like to love and fury,
I have been in Iudge and Iury:
In Physitians I live close,
But am us'd in every dose:
In my coat of Armes I bear
A Roundhead and a Cavalier.
I wear all Passions; but I move
Surest in the shape of Love:
Or in Religion, there I flye (why?
At God knows who, and who knows
In a Shopkeeper you'l guess
What I am when I profess:
In a Politick I cry,
Law, Religion, Liberty.
In a Justice I lye hid,
Yet in's Clerk I'm quickly spid:
But my subtleties grow evener
In a Broker and a Scrivener.
In a Sectarist I flame
Like the Aire of Amsterdam:
Covenants and Protestations
Are my yeerly Recreations.
But I am (such is my fate)
Never from the Counter-gate,
And a house in Broadstreet, where
I am in my proper sphere.
But (to cut off prolixity) you shall
Find (by my Anagram) I Live in all.

MLA

Jordan, Thomas. “UILLAINIE. Anagram, I LIVE IN AL.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/jordan/98/.

Chicago

Jordan, Thomas. “UILLAINIE. Anagram, I LIVE IN AL.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/jordan/98/.

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