The Wise Spirit of Thomas Nashe

1065 Words5 Pages
the wise spirit of thomas nashe Little is known with certainty of Nashe's life. He was baptised in Lowestoft, Suffolk, where his father was curate. The family moved to West Harling, near Thetford in 1573 after Nashe's father was awarded the living there at the church of All Saints. Around 1581 Thomas went up to St John's College, Cambridge as a sizar, gaining his bachelor's degree in 1586.[1] From references in his own polemics and those of others, he does not seem to have proceeded Master of Arts there. Most of his biographers agree that he left his college about summer 1588, as his name appears on a list of students due to attend philosophy lectures in that year. His reasons for leaving are unclear; his father may have died the previous year, but Richard Lichfield maliciously Thomas Nashe’s poem really struck a chord with me, partly because I understood what he was saying, and because I agree with his ideas. The poem’s title really says it all, and a reader could get from it that the topic is gloomy and unappealing. After all, who wants to think that they have to say goodbye to all the wonderful things that make our lives worth living? But on closer examination we learn that Nashe is speaking about the joys of this world versus the joy everlasting that we feel when we die and join god in Heaven. ''This world uncertain is '' I think the poem is speaking about how one gets to Heaven–or maybe, how one doesn’t get there. First, Nashe establishes that life is uncertain, which I take to mean that no one knows the time of their death. So, each of us had better be leading a moral life at all times, or we may get taken unprepared to meet our Maker. Beyond that idea, the early stanzas develop the idea that we shouldn’t be too attached to the pleasures of this world, especially if they run counter to leading a moral life. He says: "Fond are life’s lustful joys:/
Open Document