Poetical Works | Page 9

no more divine,?With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.?No nightly trance, or breathed spell,?Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. 180
XX
The lonely mountains o're,?And the resounding shore,?A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;?>From haunted spring, and dale?Edg'd with poplar pale?The parting Genius is with sighing sent,?With flowre-inwov'n tresses torn?The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
XXI
In consecrated Earth,?And on the holy Hearth, 190 The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint,?In Urns, and Altars round,?A drear, and dying sound?Affrights the Flamins at their service quaint;?And the chill Marble seems to sweat,?While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.
XXII
Peor, and Baalim,?Forsake their Temples dim,?With that twise-batter'd god of Palestine,?And mooned Ashtaroth, 200 Heav'ns Queen and Mother both,?Now sits not girt with Tapers holy shine,?The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn,?In vain the Tyrian Maids their wounded Thamuz mourn.
XXIII
And sullen Moloch fled,?Hath left in shadows dred,?His burning Idol all of blackest hue,?In vain with Cymbals ring,?They call the grisly king,?In dismall dance about the furnace Blue; 210 And Brutish gods of Nile as fast,?lsis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis hast.
THE PASSION.
I
ERE-while of Musick, and Ethereal mirth,?Wherwith the stage of Ayr and Earth did ring,?And joyous news of heav'nly Infants birth,?My muse with Angels did divide to sing;?But headlong joy is ever on the wing,?In Wintry solstice like the shortn'd light?Soon swallow'd up in dark and long out-living night.
II
For now to sorrow must I tune my song,?And set my Harpe to notes of saddest wo,?Which on our dearest Lord did sease er'e long,?Dangers, and snares, and wrongs, and worse then so, 10 Which he for us did freely undergo.?Most perfect Heroe, try'd in heaviest plight?Of labours huge and hard, too hard for human wight.
III
He sov'ran Priest stooping his regall head?That dropt with odorous oil down his fair eyes,?Poor fleshly Tabernacle entered,?His starry front low-rooft beneath the skies;?O what a Mask was there, what a disguise!?Yet more; the stroke of death he must abide, 20 Then lies him meekly down fast by his Brethrens side.
IV
These latter scenes confine my roving vers,?To this Horizon is my Phoebus bound,?His Godlike acts, and his temptations fierce,?And former sufferings other where are found;?Loud o're the rest Cremona's Trump doth sound;?Me softer airs befit, and softer strings?Of Lute, or Viol still, more apt for mournful things.
Note: 22 latter] latest 1673.
V
Befriend me night best Patroness of grief,?Over the Pole thy thickest mantle throw, 30 And work my flatterd fancy to belief,?That Heav'n and Earth are colour'd with my wo;?My sorrows are too dark for day to know:?The leaves should all be black wheron I write,?And letters where my tears have washt a wannish white.
VI
See see the Chariot, and those rushing wheels,?That whirl'd the Prophet up at Chebar flood,?My spirit som transporting Cherub feels,?To bear me where the Towers of Salem stood,?Once glorious Towers, now sunk in guiltles blood; 40 There doth my soul in holy vision sit?In pensive trance, and anguish, and ecstatick fit.
VII
Mine eye hath found that sad Sepulchral rock?That was the Casket of Heav'ns richest store,?And here though grief my feeble hands up-lock,?Yet on the softned Quarry would I score?My plaining vers as lively as before;?For sure so well instructed are my tears,?They would fitly fall in order'd Characters.
VIII
I thence hurried on viewles wing, 50 Take up a weeping on the Mountains wilde,?The gentle neighbourhood of grove and spring?Would soon unboosom all their Echoes milde,?And I (for grief is easily beguild)?Might think th'infection of my sorrows bound,?Had got a race of mourners on som pregnant cloud.
Note: This subject the Author finding to be above the yeers he had, when he wrote it, and nothing satisfi'd with what was begun, left it unfinish'd.
On Time.
FLY envious Time, till thou run out thy race,?Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,?Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace;?And glut thy self with what thy womb devours,?Which is no more then what is false and vain,?And meerly mortal dross;?So little is our loss,?So little is thy gain.?For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb'd,?And last of all, thy greedy self consum'd, 10 Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss?With an individual kiss;?And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,?When every thing that is sincerely good?And perfectly divine,?With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine?About the supreme Throne?Of him, t'whose happy-making sight alone,?When once our heav'nly-guided soul shall clime,?Then all this Earthy grosnes quit, 20 Attir'd with Stars, we shall for ever sit,?Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.
Note: See the appendix for the manuscript version.
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.
YE flaming Powers, and winged Warriours bright,?That erst with Musick, and triumphant song?First heard by happy watchful Shepherds ear,?So sweetly sung your Joy the Clouds along?Through the soft silence of the list'ning night;?Now mourn, and if sad share with us to bear?Your fiery essence can distill no tear,?Burn in your