Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

TO SIR HENRY VANE.

VANE, young in years, but in sage counsel old,

Than whom a better senator ne'er held

The helm of Rome, when gowns,

not arms, repelled

The fierce Epirot, and the African bold,

Whether to settle peace, or to unfold The drift of hollow states, hard to be spelled;

Then to advise how War may, best upheld,

Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,

In all her equipage: besides to know

Both spiritual power and civil, what each means,

What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done: The bounds of either sword to thee we owe:

Therefore on thy firm hand
Religion leans

In peace, and reckons thee her
eldest son.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

O, FOR my sake do you with Fortune chide,

The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,

That did not better for my life provide,

Than public means, which public manners breeds.

Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,

And almost thence my nature is subdued

To what it works in, like the dyer's hand:

Pity me then, and wish I were renewed;

Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink

Potions of eyesell, 'gainst my strong infection:

No bitterness that I will bitter think, Nor double penance, to correct correction.

Pity me then, dear friend, and I

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Pleased Vaga echoes through her winding bounds,

And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds.

Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry brow?

From the dry rock who bade the waters flow?

Not to the skies in useless columns tost,

Or in proud falls magnificently lost, But clear and artless, pouring through the plain

Health to the sick, and solace to the swain.

Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows?

Whose seats the weary traveller repose?

Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?

"The Man of Ross," each lisping babe replies.

Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread!

The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread:

He feeds yon almshouse, neat, but void of state,

Where age and want sit smiling at the gate:

Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blest,

The young who labor, and the old who rest.

Is any sick? The Man of Ross relieves, Prescribes, attends, the medicine makes and gives.

Is there a variance? enter but his door,

Balked are the courts, and contest is

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

(As to their number,) to their dignities.

She whom we celebrate is gone be

fore:

She who had here so much essential joy,

As no chance could distract, much less destroy;

Who with God's presence was acquainted so,

(Hearing and speaking to him,) as to know

His face in any natural stone or tree
Better than when in images they be:
Who kept by diligent devotion
God's image in such reparation
Within her heart, that what decay
was grown
Was her first Parent's fault, and not
her own:

Who, being solicited to any act,
Still heard God pleading his safe
pre-contract:

Who, by a faithful confidence was here

Betrothed to God, and now is married there:

Whose twilights were more clear than our mid-day;

Who dreamed devoutlier than most use to pray:

Who being here filled with grace, yet strove to be

Both where more grace and more capacity

At once is given. She to Heaven is gone,

Who made this world in some pro

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas,

Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms.

Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower:

The great Emathian conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the ground; and the repeated air

Of sad Electra's poet had the power To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.

MILTON.

ROB ROY'S GRAVE.

A FAMOUS man is Robin Hood, The English ballad-singer's joy! And Scotland has a thief as good, An outlaw of as daring mood; She has her brave Rob Roy!

[blocks in formation]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »