Song: To Celia

How does Ben Jonson use imagery in Song: To Celia?

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Jonson includes conventional imagery, such as eyes, roses, and wine, but employs them in inventive ways. As a result, the poem becomes a lively, expressive song extolling the immortality of love. John Addington Symonds, in his 1886 study of Jonson, calls the poem a masterpiece in its “purely lyric composition” and individuality. He concludes that Jonson's lyrics “struck the key-note of the seventeenth century.”