initial commit of ebook 6929HEADmain

1 files changed, 3692 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/6929.txt b/6929.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e44d7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6929.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3692 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poemata (William Cowper, trans.), by John Milton
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Poemata (William Cowper, trans.)
+
+Author: John Milton
+
+Release Date: November, 2004  [EBook #6929]
+[This file was first posted on February 12, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, POEMATA (WILLIAM COWPER, TRANS.) ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Eaon Walkker.
+
+
+
+POEMATA: LATIN, GREEK AND ITALIAN POEMS BY JOHN MILTON
+         (Translated by William Cowper).
+
+Digraphs, accents and italics have been omitted.
+Spelling has been modernized. Some notes and Titles
+have been slightly edited without comment. Notes follow
+the poem to which they refer.
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Complimentary Pieces Addressed to the Author.
+
+1. Elegies
+
+   Elegy I  -To Charles Diodati.
+   Elegy II -On the Death of the University Beadle at
+             Cambridge.
+   Elegy III-On the Death of the Bishop of Winchester.
+   Elegy IV -To My Tutor, Thomas Young.
+   Elegy V  -On the Approach of Spring.
+   Elegy VI -To Charles Diodati.
+   Elegy VII
+   On the Gunpowder Plot.
+   Another on the Same.
+   Another on the Same.
+   Another on the Same.
+   On the Invention of Gunpowder.
+   To Leonora, Singing in Rome.
+   Another to the Same.
+   Another to the Same.
+   The Fable of the Peasant and his Landlord.
+
+2. Poems in Various Metres.
+
+   On the Death of the Vice-Chancellor, a Physician.
+   On the Fifth of November.
+   On the Death of the Bishop of Ely.
+   That Nature is Not Subject to Decay.
+   On the Platonic Ideal as Understood by Aristotle.
+   To My Father.
+   Psalm CXIV.
+   The Philosopher and the King.
+   On the Engraver of his Portrait.
+   To Giovanni Salzilli.
+   To Giovanni Battista Manso.
+   The Death of Damon.
+   To John Rouse.
+
+3. Translations of the Italian Poems.
+
+Appendix: To Christina, Queen of Sweden.
+Appendix: Translations of Poems in the Latin Prose Works.
+Appendix: Translation of a Latin Letter.
+Appendix: Translations of the Italian Poems by George
+          MacDonald (I876).
+
+
+
+
+       Complimentary Pieces Addressed to the Author.
+
+
+1Well as the author knows that the following testimonies are not
+so much about as above him, and that men of great ingenuity, as
+well as our friends, are apt, through abundant zeal, so to praise
+us as rather to draw their own likeness than ours, he was yet
+unwilling that the world should remain always ignorant of
+compositions that do him so much honour; and especially because he
+has other friends, who have, with much importunity, solicited
+their publication. Aware that excessive commendation awakens envy,
+he would with both hands thrust it from him, preferring just so
+much of that dangerous tribute as may of right belong to him; but
+at the same time he cannot deny that he sets the highest value on
+the suffrages of judicious and distinguished persons.
+
+1 Milton's Preface, Translated.
+
+1 These complimentary pieces have been sufficiently censured
+by a great authority, but no very candid judge either of Milton
+or his panegyrists. He, however, must have a heart sadly
+indifferent to the glory of his country, who is not gratified by
+the thought that she may exult in a son whom, young as he was,
+the Learned of Italy thus contended to honour.--W.C.
+
+
+
+The Neapolitan, Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of Villa,
+         to the Englishman, John Milton.
+
+What features, form, mien, manners, with a mind
+Oh how intelligent, and how refined!
+Were but thy piety from fault as free,
+Thou wouldst no Angle1 but an Angel be.
+
+1 The reader will perceive that the word "Angle" (i.e. Anglo-
+Saxon) is essential, because the epigram turns upon it.--W.C.
+
+
+An Epigram Addressed to the Englishman, John Milton, a Poet
+Worthy of the Three Laurels of Poesy, the Grecian, Latin, and
+Etruscan, by Giovanni Salzilli of Rome
+
+Meles1 and Mincio both your urns depress!
+Sebetus, boast henceforth thy Tasso less!
+But let the Thames o'erpeer all floods, since he,
+For Milton famed, shall, single, match the three.
+
+1 Meles is a river of Ionia, in the neighborhood of Smyrna, whence
+Homer is called Melesigenes.
+  The Mincio watered the city of Mantua famous as the birthplace
+of Virgil.
+  Sebetus is now called the Fiume della Maddalena--it runs through
+Naples.--W.C.
+
+
+              To John Milton.
+
+Greece sound thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name,
+But England's Milton equals both in fame.
+                                       --Selvaggi.
+
+
+     To John Milton, English Gentleman.
+
+                   An Ode.
+
+     Exalt Me, Clio,1 to the skies,
+     That I may form a starry crown,
+     Beyond what Helicon supplies
+     In laureate garlands of renown;
+To nobler worth be brighter glory given,
+And to a heavenly mind a recompense from heaven.
+
+     Time's wasteful hunger cannot prey
+     On everlasting high desert,
+     Nor can Oblivion steal away
+     Its record graven on the heart;
+Lodge but an arrow, Virtue, on the bow
+That binds my lyre, and death shall be a vanquished foe.
+
+     In Ocean's blazing flood enshrined.
+     Whose vassal tide around her swells,
+     Albion. from other realms disjoined,
+     The prowess of the world excels;
+She teems with heroes that to glory rise,
+With more than human force in our astonished eyes.
+
+     To Virtue, driven from other lands,
+     Their bosoms yield a safe retreat;
+     Her law alone their deed commands,
+     Her smiles they feel divinely sweet;
+Confirm my record, Milton, generous youth!
+And by true virtue prove thy virtue's praise a truth.
+
+     Zeuxis, all energy and flaine,
+     Set ardent forth in his career,
+     Urged to his task by Helen's fame,
+     Resounding ever in his ear;
+To make his image to her beauty true,
+From the collected fair each sovereign charm he drew.2
+
+     The bee, with subtlest skill endued,
+     Thus toils to earn her precious juice,
+     From all the flowery myriads strewed
+     O'er meadow and parterre profuse;
+Confederate voices one sweet air compound,
+And various chords consent in one harmonious sound.
+
+     An artist of celestial aim,
+     Thy genius, caught by moral grace,
+     With ardent emulation's flame
+     The steps of Virtue toiled to trace,
+Observed in everv land who brightest shone,
+And blending all their best, make perfect good thy own.
+
+     Front all in Florence born, or taught
+     Our country's sweetest accent there,
+     Whose works, with learned labor wrought,
+     Immortal honors justly share,
+Then hast such treasure drawn of purest ore,
+That not even Tuscan bards can boast a richer store.
+
+     Babel, confused, and with her towers
+     Unfinished spreading wide and plain,
+     Has served but to evince thy powers,
+     With all hot, tongues confused in vain,
+Since not alone thy England's purest phrase,
+But every polished realm thy various speech displays.
+
+     The secret things of heaven and earth,
+     By nature, too reserved. concealed
+     From other minds of highest worth,
+     To thee ate copiously revealed;
+Thou knowest them clearly, and thy views attain
+The utmost bounds prescribed to moral truth's domain.
+
+     Let Time no snore his wing display,
+     And boast his ruinous career,
+     For Virtue, rescued front his sway.
+     His injuries may cease to fear;
+Since all events that claim remembrance find
+A chronicle exact in thy capacious mind.
+
+     Give me, that I may praise thy song,
+     Thy lyre, by which alone I can,
+     Which, placing thee the stars among,
+     Already proves thee more than man;
+And Thames shall seem Permessus,3 while his stream
+Graced with a swan like thee. shall be my favorite theme.
+
+     I, who beside the Arno, strain
+     To match thy merit with my lays,
+     Learn, after many an effort vain,
+     To admure thee rather than to praise;
+And that by mute astonishment alone,
+Not by the fathering tongue, thy worth may best be shown.
+
+        --Signor Antonio Francini, Gentleman, of Florence.
+
+1 The muse of History.
+
+2 The portrait of Helen was painted at the request of the people
+of Crotna, who sent to the artist all their lovliest girls for
+models. Zeuxis selected five, and united their separate beauties
+in his picture.
+
+3 A river in Boeotia which took its rise in Helicon. See Virgil
+Ecl. vi.64
+
+
+           To Mr. John Milton of London
+
+A youth eminent from his country and his virtues,
+
+Who in his travels has made himself acquainted with many
+nations, and in his studies, with all, that, life another
+Ulysses, lie might learn all that all could teach him;
+
+Skilful in many tongues, on whose lips languages now mute so
+live again, that the idioms of all are insufficient to his
+praise; happy acquisition by which he understands the
+universal admiration and applause his talents trace excited;
+
+Whose endowments of mind and person move us to wonder, but at the same time fix
+us immovable: whose works prompt us to
+extol him, but by their beauty strike us mute;
+
+In whose memory the whole world is treasured; in whose
+intellect, wisdom; in whose heart, the ardent desire for
+glory; and in whose mouth, eloquence. Who with Astronomy for
+his conductor, hears the music of the spheres; with
+Philosophy for the teacher, deciphers the hand-writing of
+God, in those wonders of creation which proclaim His
+greatness; and with the most unwearied literary industry for
+his associate, examines, restores, penetrates with case the
+obscurities of antiquity, the desolations of ages, and the
+labyrinths of learning;
+
+     "But wherefore toil to reach these arduous heights?"
+
+To him, in short, whose virtues the mouths of Fame are too few to celebrate, and
+whom astonishment forbids us to praise
+a he deserves, this tribute due to his merits, and the
+offering of reverence and affection, is paid by Carlo Dati, a
+patrician Florentine.
+      This great man's servant, and this good man's friend.
+
+
+              In Miltonum.1
+
+Tres tria, sed longe distantia, saecula vates
+Ostentant tribus e gentibus eximios.
+Graecia sublimem, cum majestate disertum
+Roma tulit, felix Anglia utrique parem.
+Partubus ex binis Natura exhausta, coacta est,
+Tertis ut fieret, consociare duos.
+                             --Joannem Dridenum.
+
+1 Translation of Dryden's Lines Printed Under the
+Engraved Portrait of Milton in Tonson's Folio Edition
+of "Paradise Lost," I688.
+
+
+Stanzas on the Late Indecent Liberties Taken with
+the Remains of the Great Milton, by Wm. Cowper, Esq.1
+
+Me too, perchance, in future days,
+   The sculptur'd stone shall show,
+With Paphian myrtle, or with bays
+   Parnessian, on my brow.
+
+But I, before that season come,
+   Escap'd from ev'ry care,
+Shall reach my refuge in the tomb,
+   And sleep securely there.
+
+So sang in Roman tone and style
+   The youthful bard, ere long
+Ordain'd to grace his native isle
+   With her sublimest song.
+
+Who then but must conceive disdain,
+   Hearing the deed unblest
+Of wretches who have dar'd profane
+   His dread sepulchral rest?
+
+Ill fare the hands that heav'd the stones
+   Where Milton's ashes lay!
+That trembled not to grasp his bones.
+   And steal his dust away!
+
+Oh! ill-requited bard! Neglect
+   Thy living worth repaid,
+And blind idolatrous respect
+   As much affronts thee dead.
+
+1 This shocking outrage took place in I790 whilst the Church of St. Giles,
+Cripplegate, was repairing. The overseers (for the sake of gain) opened a coffin
+supposed to be Milton's, found a body, extracted its teeth, cut off its hair,
+and left the remains to the grave-diggers, who exhibited them for money to the
+public.
+
+     Forsitan & nostros ducat de marmore vultus,
+     Nectens aut Paphia myrti aut Parnasside lauri
+     Fronde comas, at ego secura pace quiescam.
+                   --Milton. "Mansus" ("Manso")
+
+     Cowper's translation :
+
+     To honour me, and with the graceful wreath
+     Or of Parnassus or the Paphian isle
+     Shall bind my brows--but I shall rest the while."
+
+
+
+
+
+POEMATA
+
+
+1. ELEGIES
+
+                 ELEGY I
+
+              To Charles Diodati.1
+
+At length, my friend, the far-sent letters come,
+Charged with thy kindness, to their destin'd home,
+They come, at length, from Deva's2 Western side,
+Where prone she seeks the salt Vergivian tide.3
+Trust me, my joy is great that thou shouldst be,
+Though born of foreign race, yet born for me,
+And that my sprightly friend, now free to roam,
+Must seek again so soon his wonted home.
+I well content, where Thames with refluent tide
+My native city laves, meantime reside,              10
+Nor zeal nor duty, now, my steps impell
+To reedy Cam,4 and my forbidden cell.5
+Nor aught of pleasure in those fields have I,
+That, to the musing bard, all shade deny.
+Tis time, that I, a pedant's threats6 disdain,
+And fly from wrongs, my soul will ne'er sustain.
+If peaceful days, in letter'd leisure spent
+Beneath my father's roof, be banishment,
+Then call me banish'd, I will ne'er refuse
+A name expressive of the lot I chuse.               20
+I would that exiled to the Pontic shore,
+Rome's hapless bard7 had suffer'd nothing more!
+He then had equall'd even Homer's lays,
+And, Virgil! thou hadst won but second praise.
+For here I woo the Muse with no control,
+And here my books--my life--absorb me whole.
+Here too I visit, or to smile, or weep,
+The winding theatre's majestic sweep;
+The grave or gay colloquial scene recruits
+My spirits spent in Learning's long pursuits.       30
+Whether some Senior shrewd, or spendthrift heir,
+Wooer, or soldier, now unarm'd, be there,
+Or some coif'd brooder o'er a ten years' cause
+Thunder the Norman gibb'rish of the laws.
+The lacquey, there, oft dupes the wary sire,
+And, artful, speeds th'enamour'd son's desire.
+There, virgins oft, unconscious what they prove,
+What love is, know not, yet, unknowing, love.
+Or, if impassion'd Tragedy wield high
+The bloody sceptre, give her locks to fly           40
+Wild as the winds, and roll her haggard eye,
+I gaze, and grieve, still cherishing my grief.
+At times, e'en bitter tears! yield sweet relief.
+As when from bliss untasted torn away,
+Some youth dies, hapless, on his bridal day,
+Or when the ghost, sent back from shades below,
+Fills the assassin's heart with vengeful woe,
+When Troy, or Argos, the dire scene affords,
+Or Creon's hall8 laments its guilty lords.
+Nor always city-pent or pent at home                50
+I dwell, but when Spring calls me forth to roam
+Expatiate in our proud suburban shades
+Of branching elm that never sun pervades.
+Here many a virgin troop I may descry,
+Like stars of mildest influence, gliding by,
+Oh forms divine!  Oh looks that might inspire
+E'en Jove himself, grown old, with young desire!
+Oft have I gazed on gem-surpassing eyes,
+Outsparkling every star that gilds the skies.
+Necks whiter than the iv'ry arm bestow'd            60
+By Jove on Pelops, or the Milky Road!
+Bright locks, Love's golden snares, these falling low,
+Those playing wanton o'er the graceful brow!
+Cheeks too, more winning sweet than after show'r,
+Adonis turn'd to Flora's fav'rite flow'r!
+Yield, Heroines, yield, and ye who shar'd th'embrace
+Of Jupiter in ancient times, give place;
+Give place ye turban'd Fair of Persia's coast,
+And ye, not less renown'd, Assyria's boast!
+Submit, ye nymphs of Greece! Ye once the bloom      70
+Of Ilion,9 and all ye of haughty Rome,
+Who swept of old her theatres with trains
+Redundant, and still live in classic strains!
+To British damsels beauty's palm is due,
+Aliens! to follow them is fame for you.
+Oh city,10 founded by Dardanian hands,
+Whose towering front the circling realm commands,
+Too blest abode! no loveliness we see
+In all the earth, but it abounds in thee.
+The virgin multitude that daily meets,              80
+Radiant with gold and beauty, in thy streets,
+Outnumbers all her train of starry fires
+With which Diana gilds thy lofty spires.
+Fame says, that wafted hither by her doves,
+With all her host of quiver-bearing Loves,
+Venus, prefering Paphian scenes no more,
+Has fix'd her empire on thy nobler shore.
+But lest the sightless boy inforce my stay,
+I leave these happy walls, while yet I may.
+Immortal Moly11 shall secure my heart               90
+From all the sorc'ry of Circaean art,
+And I will e'en repass Cam's reedy pools
+To face once more the warfare of the Schools.
+Meantime accept this trifle; Rhymes, though few,
+Yet such as prove thy friend's remembrance true.
+
+1 Diodati was a schoolfellow of Milton at St. Paul's, of Italian
+extraction, nephew of Giovanni Diodati, the translator of the
+Bible into Italian, and son of Theodore Diodati, a physician of
+eminence, who married and settled in England. charles Diodati's
+early death formed the subject of The "Epitaphium Damonis" ("The
+Death of Damon").
+
+2 The Dee of Chester.
+
+3 The Vergivian Sea, so called by Ptolemy, was the Irish Sea
+between England and Ireland.
+
+4 Cambridge.
+
+5 Milton had been rusticated (suspended) on account of a quarrel with his tutor,
+Chappell.
+
+6 Chappell.
+
+7 Ovid.
+
+8 In Thebes--the guilty lords are Eteocles and Polynices the
+brothers-sons of Oedipus and Jocasta, who fell in their unnatural
+strife.
+
+9 Troy.
+
+10 London. The Dardanian (i.e. Trojan) hands are those of Brutus,
+the legendary founder of London.
+
+11 The magical plant by which Odysseus was enabled to escape from
+Circe. See Homer (Odyssey, x. 370-375).
+
+
+                 ELEGY II
+
+On the Death of the University Beadle at Cambridge.1
+
+Thee, whose refulgent staff and summons clear,
+   Minerva's flock longtime was wont t'obey,
+Although thyself an herald, famous here,
+   The last of heralds, Death, has snatch'd away.
+He calls on all alike, nor even deigns
+To spare the office that himself sustains.
+
+Thy locks were whiter than the plumes display'd
+   By Leda's paramour2 in ancient time,
+But thou wast worthy ne'er to have decay'd,
+   Or, Aeson-like,3 to know a second prime,          10
+Worthy for whom some Goddess should have won
+New life, oft kneeling to Apollo's son.4
+
+Commission'd to convene with hasty call
+   The gowned tribes, how graceful wouldst thou stand!
+So stood Cyllenius5 erst in Priam's hall,
+   Wing-footed messenger of Jove's command,
+And so, Eurybates6 when he address'd
+To Peleus' son Atrides' proud behest.
+
+Dread Queen of sepulchres! whose rig'rous laws
+   And watchful eyes, run through the realms below, 20
+Oh, oft too adverse to Minerva's cause,
+   Too often to the Muse not less a foe,
+Chose meaner marks, and with more equal aim
+Pierce useless drones, earth's burthen and its shame!
+
+Flow, therefore, tears for Him from ev'ry eye,
+   All ye disciples of the Muses, weep!
+Assembling, all, in robes of sable dye,
+   Around his bier, lament his endless sleep,
+And let complaining Elegy rehearse
+In every School her sweetest saddest verse.         30
+
+1 Richard Redding of St. John's College, M.A. He died in October,
+I626.
+
+2 The Swan--Jove had turned himself into that bird.
+
+3 i.e. Jason, who was restored to youth by his daughter Medea.
+
+4 Esculapius, the god of medicine.
+
+5 Hermes.
+
+6 One of the heralds sent to Achilles by Agamemnon.
+
+
+                 ELEGY III
+              Anno Aetates 17.1
+
+    On the Death of the Bishop of Winchester.2
+
+Silent I sat, dejected, and alone,
+Making in thought the public woes my own,
+When, first, arose the image in my breast
+Of England's sufferings by that scourge, the pest.3
+How death, his fun'ral torch and scythe in hand,
+Ent'ring the lordliest mansions of the land,
+Has laid the gem-illumin'd palace low,
+And level'd tribes of Nobles at a blow.
+I, next, deplor'd the famed fraternal pair4
+Too soon to ashes turn'd and empty air,             10
+The Heroes next, whom snatch'd into the skies
+All Belgia saw, and follow'd with her sighs;
+But Thee far most I mourn'd, regretted most,
+Winton's chief shepherd and her worthiest boast;
+Pour'd out in tears I thus complaining said--
+Death, next in pow'r to Him who rules the Dead!
+Is't not enough that all the woodlands yield
+To thy fell force, and ev'ry verdant field,
+That lilies, at one noisome blast of thine,
+And ev'n the Cyprian Queen's own roses, pine,       20
+That oaks themselves, although the running rill
+Suckle their roots, must wither at thy will,
+That all the winged nations, even those
+Whose heav'n-directed flight the Future shows,
+And all the beasts that in dark forests stray,
+And all the herds of Proteus5 are thy prey?
+Ah envious! arm'd with pow'rs so unconfined
+Why stain thy hands with blood of Human kind?
+Why take delight, with darts that never roam,
+To chase a heav'n-born spirit from her home?        30
+   While thus I mourn'd, the star of evening stood,
+Now newly ris'n, above the western flood,
+And Phoebus from his morning-goal again
+Had reach'd the gulphs of the Iberian main.
+I wish'd repose, and, on my couch reclined
+Took early rest, to night and sleep resign'd,
+When--Oh for words to paint what I beheld!
+I seem'd to wander in a spacious field,
+Where all the champain glow'd with purple light
+Like that of sun-rise on the mountain height;       40
+Flow'rs over all the field, of ev'ry hue
+That ever Iris wore, luxuriant grew,
+Nor Chloris,6 with whom amtrous Zephyrs play,
+E'er dress'd Alcinous' gardens7 half so gay.
+A silver current, like the Tagus, roll'd
+O'er golden sands, but sands of purer gold,
+With dewy airs Favonius fann'd the flow'rs,
+With airs awaken'd under rosy bow'rs.
+Such poets feign, irradiated all o'er
+The sun's abode on India's utmost shore.            50
+   While I, that splendour and the mingled shade
+Of fruitful vines, with wonder fixt survey'd,
+At once, with looks that beam'd celestial grace,
+The Seer of Winton stood before my face.
+His snowy vesture's hem descending low
+His golden sandals swept, and pure as snow
+New-fallen shone the mitre on his brow.
+Where'er he trod, a tremulous sweet sound
+Of gladness shook the flow'ry scene around:
+Attendant angels clap their starry wings,           60
+The trumpet shakes the sky, all aether rings,
+Each chaunts his welcome, folds him to his breast,
+And thus a sweeter voice than all the rest.
+"Ascend, my son! thy Father's kingdom share,
+My son! henceforth be free'd from ev'ry care."
+   So spake the voice, and at its tender close
+With psaltry's sound th'Angelic band arose.
+Then night retired, and chased by dawning day
+The visionary bliss pass'd all away.
+I mourn'd my banish'd sleep with fond concern,       70
+Frequent, to me may dreams like this return.
+
+1 i.e. "In my seventeeth year," meaning at the age of sixteen.
+
+2 Lancelot Andrewes, Fuller's "peerless prelate."
+
+3 The plague which ravaged England in I626.
+
+4 Prince Christian of Brunswick, and Count Mansfelt. They were
+brothers in arms and the Protestant champions. They both died in
+I626.
+
+5 Marine creatures. Proteus was the shepherd of the seas.
+
+6 Flora.
+
+7 See the account of his gardens in the Odyssey.
+
+
+                 ELEGY IV.
+              Anno Aetates 18.
+
+         To My Tutor, Thomas Young,1
+Chaplain of the English Merchants Resident at Hamburg.
+
+Hence, my epistle--skim the Deep--fly o'er
+Yon smooth expanse to the Teutonic shore!
+Haste--lest a friend should grieve for thy delay--
+And the Gods grant that nothing thwart thy way!
+I will myself invoke the King2 who binds
+In his Sicanian ecchoing vault the winds,
+With Doris3 and her Nymphs, and all the throng
+Of azure Gods, to speed thee safe along.
+But rather, to insure thy happier haste,
+Ascend Medea's chariot,4 if thou may'st,             10
+Or that whence young Triptolemus5 of yore
+Descended welcome on the Scythian shore.
+The sands that line the German coast descried,
+To opulent Hamburg turn aside,
+So call'd, if legendary fame be true,
+From Hama,6 whom a club-arm'd Cimbrian slew.
+There lives, deep-learn'd and primitively just,
+A faithful steward of his Christian trust,
+My friend, and favorite inmate of my heart--
+That now is forced to want its better part!         20
+What mountains now, and seas, alas! how wide!
+From me this other, dearer self divide,
+Dear, as the sage7 renown'd for moral truth
+To the prime spirit of the Attic youth!
+Dear, as the Stagyrite8 to Ammon's son,9
+His pupil, who disdain'd the world he won!
+Nor so did Chiron, or so Phoenix shine10
+In young Achilles' eyes, as He in mine.
+First led by him thro' sweet Aonian11 shade
+Each sacred haunt of Pindus I survey'd;             30
+And favor'd by the muse, whom I implor'd,
+Thrice on my lip the hallow'd stream I pour'd.
+But thrice the Sun's resplendent chariot roll'd
+To Aries, has new ting'd his fleece with gold,
+And Chloris twice has dress'd the meadows gay,
+And twice has Summer parch'd their bloom away,
+Since last delighted on his looks I hung,
+Or my ear drank the music of his tongue.
+Fly, therefore, and surpass the tempest's speed!
+Aware thyself that there is urgent need.            40
+Him, ent'ring, thou shalt haply seated see
+Beside his spouse, his infants on his knee,
+Or turning page by page with studious look
+Some bulky Father, or God's Holy Book,
+Or minist'ring (which is his weightiest care)
+To Christ's assembled flock their heav'nly fare.
+Give him, whatever his employment be,
+Such gratulation as he claims from me,
+And with a down-cast eye and carriage meek
+Addressing him, forget not thus to speak.           50
+   If, compass'd round with arms, thou canst attend
+To verse, verse greets thee from a distant friend,
+Long due and late I left the English shore,
+But make me welcome for that cause the more.
+Such from Ulysses, his chaste wife to cheer,
+The slow epistle came, tho' late, sincere.
+But wherefore This? why palliate I a deed,
+For which the culprit's self could hardly plead?
+Self-charged and self-condemn'd, his proper part
+He feels neglected, with an aching heart;           60
+But Thou forgive--Delinquents who confess,
+And pray forgiveness, merit anger less;
+From timid foes the lion turns away,
+Nor yawns upon or rends a crouching prey,
+Even pike-wielding Thracians learn to spare,
+Won by soft influence of a suppliant's prayer;
+And heav'n's dread thunderbolt arrested stands
+By a cheap victim and uplifted hands.
+Long had he wish'd to write, but was witheld,
+And writes at last, by love alone compell'd,        70
+For Fame, too often true when she alarms,
+Reports thy neighbouring-fields a scene of arms;12
+Thy city against fierce besiegers barr'd,
+And all the Saxon Chiefs for fight prepar'd.
+Enyo13 wastes thy country wide around,
+And saturates with blood the tainted ground;
+Mars rests contented in his Thrace no more,
+But goads his steeds to fields of German gore,
+The ever-verdant olive fades and dies,
+And peace, the trumpet-hating goddess, flies,       80
+Flies from that earth which justice long had left,
+And leaves the world of its last guard bereft.
+   Thus horror girds thee round. Meantime alone
+Thou dwell'st, and helpless in a soil unknown,
+Poor, and receiving from a foreign hand
+The aid denied thee in thy native land.
+Oh, ruthless country, and unfeeling more
+Than thy own billow-beaten chalky shore!
+Leav'st Thou to foreign Care the Worthies giv'n
+By providence, to guide thy steps to Heav'n?       90
+His ministers, commission'd to proclaim
+Eternal blessings in a Saviour's name?
+Ah then most worthy! with a soul unfed
+In Stygian night to lie for ever dead.
+So once the venerable Tishbite stray'd
+An exil'd fugitive from shade to shade,
+When, flying Ahab and his Fury wife,
+In lone Arabian wilds he shelter'd life;
+So, from Philippi wander'd forth forlorn
+Cilician Paul, with sounding scourges torn;        100
+And Christ himself so left and trod no more
+The thankless Gergesenes' forbidden shore.
+   But thou take courage, strive against despair,
+Quake not with dread, nor nourish anxious care.
+Grim war indeed on ev'ry side appears,
+And thou art menac'd by a thousand spears,
+Yet none shall drink thy blood, or shall offend
+Ev'n the defenceless bosom of my friend;
+For thee the Aegis of thy God shall hide,
+Jehova's self shall combat on thy side,            110
+The same, who vanquish'd under Sion's tow'rs
+At silent midnight all Assyria's pow'rs,
+The same who overthrew in ages past,
+Damascus' sons that lay'd Samaria waste;
+Their King he fill'd and them with fatal fears
+By mimic sounds of clarions in their ears,
+Of hoofs and wheels and neighings from afar
+Of clanging armour and the din of war.
+   Thou therefore, (as the most affiicted may)
+Still hope, and triumph o'er thy evil day,         120
+Look forth, expecting happier times to come,
+And to enjoy once more thy native home!
+
+1 Young was private tutor to Milton before he went to St. Paul's. (Milton's
+prose letter to Young is included in an appendix below.)
+
+2 Aeolus, god of the east wind. Sicania was a name for Sicily.
+
+3 Mother of the Nereids (sea-nymphs).
+
+4 Drawn by winged dragons.
+
+5 Triptolemus was presented by Ceres with a winged chariot.
+
+6 A Saxon warrior slain by a giant.
+
+7 Socrates. 8 Aristotle. 9 Alexander.
+
+10 Chiron and Phoenix were the tutors of Achilles.
+
+11 Helicon.
+
+12 Alluding to the war between the Protestant League and the
+Imperialists.
+
+13 The goddess of war.
+
+
+                 ELEGY V.
+              Anno Aetates 20.
+
+         On the Approach of Spring.
+
+Time, never wand'ring from his annual round,
+Bids Zephyr breathe the Spring, and thaw the ground;
+Bleak Winter flies, new verdure clothes the plain,
+And earth assumes her transient youth again.
+Dream I, or also to the Spring belong
+Increase of Genius, and new pow'rs of song?
+Spring gives them, and, how strange soere it seem,
+Impels me now to some harmonious theme.
+Castalia's fountain and the forked hill1
+By day, by night, my raptur'd fancy fill,           10
+My bosom burns and heaves, I hear within
+A sacred sound that prompts me to begin,
+Lo! Phoebus comes, with his bright hair he blends
+The radiant laurel wreath; Phoebus descends;
+I mount, and, undepress'd by cumb'rous clay,
+Through cloudy regions win my easy way;
+Rapt through poetic shadowy haunts I fly:
+The shrines all open to my dauntless eye,
+My spirit searches all the realms of light,
+And no Tartarean gulphs elude my sight.             20
+But this ecstatic trance--this glorious storm
+Of inspiration--what will it perform?
+Spring claims the verse that with his influence glows,
+And shall be paid with what himself bestows.
+   Thou, veil'd with op'ning foliage, lead'st the throng
+Of feather'd minstrels, Philomel! in song;
+Let us, in concert, to the season sing,
+Civic, and sylvan heralds of the spring!
+   With notes triumphant spring's approach declare!
+To spring, ye Muses, annual tribute bear!           30
+The Orient left and Aethiopia's plains
+The Sun now northward turns his golden reins,
+Night creeps not now, yet rules with gentle sway,
+And drives her dusky horrors swift away;
+Now less fatigued on his aetherial plain
+Bootes2 follows his celestial wain;
+And now the radiant centinels above
+Less num'rous watch around the courts of Jove,
+For, with the night, Force, Ambush, Slaughter fly,
+And no gigantic guilt alarms the sky.               40
+Now haply says some shepherd, while he views,
+Recumbent on a rock, the redd'ning dews,
+This night, this surely, Phoebus miss'd the fair,
+Who stops his chariot by her am'rous care.
+Cynthia,3 delighted by the morning's glow,
+Speeds to the woodland, and resumes her bow;
+Resigns her beams, and, glad to disappear,
+Blesses his aid who shortens her career.
+Come--Phoebus cries--Aurora come--too late
+Thou linger'st slumb'ring with thy wither'd mate,4  50
+Leave Him, and to Hymettus' top repair,
+Thy darling Cephalus expects thee there.
+The goddess, with a blush, her love betrays,
+But mounts, and driving rapidly obeys.
+Earth now desires thee, Phoebus! and, t'engage
+Thy warm embrace, casts off the guise of age.
+Desires thee, and deserves; for who so sweet,
+When her rich bosom courts thy genial heat?
+Her breath imparts to ev'ry breeze that blows
+Arabia's harvest and the Paphian rose.              60
+Her lofty front she diadems around
+With sacred pines, like Ops on Ida crown'd,
+Her dewy locks with various flow'rs new-blown,
+She interweaves, various, and all her own,
+For Proserpine in such a wreath attired
+Taenarian Dis5 himself with love inspired.
+Fear not, lest, cold and coy, the Nymph refuse,
+Herself, with all her sighing Zephyrs sues,
+Each courts thee fanning soft his scented wing,
+And all her groves with warbled wishes ring.        70
+Nor, unendow'd and indigent, aspires
+Th'am'rous Earth to engage thy warm desires,
+But, rich in balmy drugs, assists thy claim
+Divine Physician! to that glorious name.
+If splendid recompense, if gifts can move
+Desire in thee (gifts often purchase love),
+She offers all the wealth, her mountains hide,
+And all that rests beneath the boundless tide.
+How oft, when headlong from the heav'nly steep
+She sees thee plunging in the Western Deep          80
+How oft she cries--Ah Phoebus! why repair
+Thy wasted force, why seek refreshment there?
+Can Tethys6 win thee? wherefore should'st thou lave
+A face so fair in her unpleasant wave?
+Come, seek my green retreats, and rather chuse
+To cool thy tresses in my chrystal dews,
+The grassy turf shall yield thee sweeter rest,
+Come, lay thy evening glories on my breast,
+And breathing fresh through many a humid rose,
+Soft whisp'ring airs shall lull thee to repose.     90
+No fears I feel like Semele7 to die,
+Nor lest thy burning wheels8 approach too nigh,
+For thou can'st govern them. Here therefore rest,
+And lay thy evening glories on my breast.
+    Thus breathes the wanton Earth her am'rous flame,
+And all her countless offspring feel the same;
+For Cupid now through every region strays
+Bright'ning his faded fires with solar rays,
+His new-strung bow sends forth a deadlier sound,
+And his new-pointed shafts more deeply wound,      100
+Nor Dian's self escapes him now untried,
+Nor even Vesta9 at her altar-side;
+His mother too repairs her beauty's wane,
+And seems sprung newly from the Deep again.
+Exulting youths the Hymenaeal10 sing,
+With Hymen's name roofs, rocks, and valleys ring;
+He, new attired and by the season dress'd
+Proceeds all fragrant in his saffron vest.
+Now, many a golden-cinctur'd virgin roves
+To taste the pleasures of the fields and groves,   110
+All wish, and each alike, some fav'rite youth
+Hers in the bonds of Hymenaeal truth.
+Now pipes the shepherd through his reeds again,
+Nor Phyllis wants a song that suits the strain,
+With songs the seaman hails the starry sphere,
+And dolphins rise from the abyss to hear,
+Jove feels, himself, the season, sports again
+With his fair spouse, and banquets all his train.
+Now too the Satyrs in the dusk of Eve
+Their mazy dance through flow'ry meadows weave,    120
+And neither God nor goat, but both in kind,
+Sylvanus,11 wreath'd with cypress, skips behind.
+The Dryads leave the hollow sylvan cells
+To roam the banks, and solitary dells;
+Pan riots now; and from his amorous chafe
+Ceres12 and Cybele seem hardly safe,
+And Faunus,13 all on fire to reach the prize,
+In chase of some enticing Oread14 flies;
+She bounds before, but fears too swift a bound,
+And hidden lies, but wishes to be found.           130
+Our shades entice th'Immortals from above,
+And some kind Pow'r presides oter ev'ry grove,
+And long ye Pow'rs o'er ev'ry grove preside,
+For all is safe and blest where ye abide!
+Return O Jove! the age of gold restore--
+Why chose to dwell where storms and thunders roar?
+At least, thou, Phoebus! moderate thy speed,
+Let not the vernal hours too swift proceed,
+Command rough Winter back, nor yield the pole
+Too soon to Night's encroaching, long control.     140
+
+1 Helicon.
+
+2 The Great Bear, called also Charles's Wain (wagon). "Bootes" is
+the constellation called "The Waggoner," who is said to be "less
+fatigued" because he drives the wain higher in the sky.
+
+3 Diana (the Moon).
+
+4 Tithonus, mortal husband to Aurora (the dawn), granted
+immortality without eternal youth. See Homer's Hymn to Aphrodite
+(lines 218-238). Cephalus was her lover, unwillingly taken by her
+from his beloved wife Procris. See Ovid (Met. vii, 700-708).
+
+5 Hades (Pluto).
+
+6 A water goddess--mother of the river gods and wife of Oceanus.
+
+7 The mother of Dionysus. Juno persuaded her to ask to see Jove in
+all his divine glory, the vision of which struck her dead. See
+Ovid (Met. iii, 308-309.)
+
+8 The wheels of Apollo's chariot. See Ovid (Met. ii, I9-328.)
+
+9 The goddess of chastity.
+
+10 Hymn to Hymen, the goddess of marriage. 11 The wood god.
+
+12 The goddess of agriculture. Cybele (Rhea) was called the mother
+of the gods and of men. See Virgil (Aen. x, 252-253.)
+
+13 The god of shepherds. 14 A wood nymph.
+
+
+                 ELEGY VI
+
+            To Charles Diodati,
+    When He Was Visiting in the Country
+
+Who sent the Author a poetical epistle, in which he requested that
+his verses, if not so good as usual, might be excused on account
+of the many feasts to which his friends invited him, and which
+would not allow him leisure to finish them as he wished.
+
+With no rich viands overcharg'd, I send
+Health, which perchance you want, my pamper'd friend;
+But wherefore should thy Muse tempt mine away
+From what she loves, from darkness into day?
+Art thou desirous to be told how well
+I love thee, and in verse? Verse cannot tell.
+For verse has bounds, and must in measure move;
+But neither bounds nor measure knows my love.
+How pleasant in thy lines described appear
+December's harmless sports and rural cheer!         10
+French spirits kindling with caerulean fires,
+And all such gambols as the time inspires!
+   Think not that Wine against good verse offends;
+The Muse and Bacchus have been always friends,
+Nor Phoebus blushes sometimes to be found
+With Ivy, rather than with Laurel, crown'd.
+The Nine themselves oftimes have join'd the song
+And revels of the Bacchanalian throng.
+Not even Ovid could in Scythian air
+Sing sweetly--why? no vine would flourish there.    20
+What in brief numbers sang Anacreon's1 muse?
+Wine, and the rose, that sparkling wine bedews.
+Pindar with Bacchus glows--his every line
+Breathes the rich fragrance of inspiring wine,
+While, with loud crash o'erturn'd, the chariot lies
+And brown with dust the fiery courser flies.
+The Roman lyrist steep'd in wine his lays
+So sweet in Glycera's, and Chloe's praise.2
+Now too the plenteous feast, and mantling bowl
+Nourish the vigour of thy sprightly soul;           30
+The flowing goblet makes thy numbers flow,
+And casks not wine alone, but verse, bestow.
+Thus Phoebus favours, and the arts attend
+Whom Bacchus, and whom Ceres, both befriend.
+What wonder then, thy verses are so sweet,
+In which these triple powers so kindly meet.
+The lute now also sounds, with gold inwrought,
+And touch'd with flying Fingers nicely taught,
+In tap'stried halls high-roof'd the sprightly lyre
+Directs the dancers of the virgin choir.            40
+If dull repletion fright the Muse away,
+Sights, gay as these, may more invite her stay;
+And, trust me, while the iv'ry keys resound,
+Fair damsels sport, and perfumes steam around,
+Apollo's influence, like ethereal flame
+Shall animate at once thy glowing frame,
+And all the Muse shall rush into thy breast,
+By love and music's blended pow'rs possest.
+For num'rous pow'rs light Elegy befriend,
+Hear her sweet voice, and at her call attend;              50
+Her, Bacchus, Ceres, Venus, all approve,
+And with his blushing Mother, gentle Love.
+Hence, to such bards we grant the copious use
+Of banquets, and the vine's delicious juice.
+But they who Demigods and Heroes praise
+And feats perform'd in Jove's more youthful days,
+Who now the counsels of high heav'n explore,
+Now shades, that echo the Cerberean roar,3
+Simply let these, like him of Samos4 live,
+Let herbs to them a bloodless banquet give;         60
+In beechen goblets let their bev'rage shine,
+Cool from the chrystal spring, their sober wine!
+Their youth should pass, in innocence, secure
+From stain licentious, and in manners pure,
+Pure as the priest's, when robed in white he stands
+The fresh lustration ready in his hands.
+Thus Linus5 liv'd, and thus, as poets write,
+Tiresias, wiser for his loss of sight,6
+Thus exil'd Chalcas,7 thus the bard of Thrace,8
+Melodious tamer of the savage race!                 70
+Thus train'd by temp'rance, Homer led, of yore,
+His chief of Ithaca9 from shore to shore,
+Through magic Circe's monster-peopled reign,
+And shoals insidious with the siren train;
+And through the realms, where griesly spectres dwell,
+Whose tribes he fetter'd in a gory spell;
+For these are sacred bards, and, from above,
+Drink large infusions from the mind of Jove.
+   Would'st thou (perhaps 'tis hardly worth thine ear)
+Would'st thou be told my occupation here?           80
+The promised King of peace employs my pen,
+Th'eternal cov'nant made for guilty men,
+The new-born Deity with infant cries
+Filling the sordid hovel, where he lies;
+The hymning Angels, and the herald star
+That led the Wise who sought him from afar,
+And idols on their own unhallow'd floor
+Dash'd at his birth, to be revered no more!
+   This theme10 on reeds of Albion I rehearse;
+The dawn of that blest day inspired the verse;      90
+Verse that, reserv'd in secret, shall attend
+Thy candid voice, my Critic and my Friend!
+
+1 A poet native to Teios in Ionia.
+
+2 See Horace's Odes (i, 19-23).
+
+3 Cerberus, the guardian of Hades.
+
+4 Pythagoras. 5 A son of Apollo.
+
+6 Tiresias was gifted by Pallas with the power of understanding
+the language of birds to atone for his loss of sight.
+
+7 The Grecian soothsayer at the siege of Troy. 8 Orpheus.
+
+9 Odysseus.
+
+10 "The Hymn" from "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity."
+
+
+                 Elegy VI.
+         Anno Aetates undevigesimo.1
+
+As yet a stranger to the gentle fires
+That Amathusia's smiling Queen2 inspires,
+Not seldom I derided Cupid's darts,
+And scorn'd his claim to rule all human hearts.
+Go, child, I said, transfix the tim'rous dove,
+An easy conquest suits an infant Love;
+Enslave the sparrow, for such prize shall be
+Sufficient triumph to a Chief like thee;
+Why aim thy idle arms at human kind?
+Thy shafts prevail not 'gainst the noble mind.      10
+   The Cyprian3 heard, and, kindling into ire,
+(None kindles sooner) burn'd with double fire.
+   It was the Spring, and newly risen day
+Peep'd o'er the hamlets on the First of May;
+My eyes too tender for the blaze of light,
+Still sought the shelter of retiring night,
+When Love approach'd, in painted plumes arrayed;
+Th'insidious god his rattling darts betray'd,
+Nor less his infant features, and the sly
+Sweet intimations of his threat'ning eye.           20
+   Such the Sigeian boy4 is seen above,
+Filling the goblet for imperial Jove;
+Such he, on whom the nymphs bestow'd their charms,
+Hylas,5 who perish'd in a Naiad's arms.
+Angry he seem'd, yet graceful in his ire,
+And added threats, not destitute of fire.
+"My power," he said, "by others pain alone,
+'Twere best to learn; now learn it by thy own!
+With those, who feel my power, that pow'r attest!
+And in thy anguish be my sway confest!              30
+I vanquish'd Phoebus, though returning vain
+From his new triumph o'er the Python slain,
+And, when he thinks on Daphne,6 even He
+Will yield the prize of archery to me.
+A dart less true the Parthian horseman7 sped,
+Behind him kill'd, and conquer'd as he fled,
+Less true th'expert Cydonian, and less true
+The youth, whose shaft his latent Procris slew.8
+Vanquish'd by me see huge Orion bend,
+By me Alcides,9 and Alcides's friend.10                 40
+At me should Jove himself a bolt design,
+His bosom first should bleed transfix'd by mine.
+But all thy doubts this shaft will best explain,
+Nor shall it teach thee with a trivial pain,
+Thy Muse, vain youth! shall not thy peace ensure,
+Nor Phoebus' serpent yield thy wound a cure.11
+   He spoke, and, waving a bright shaft in air,
+Sought the warm bosom of the Cyprian fair.
+   That thus a child should bluster in my ear
+Provok'd my laughter more than mov'd my fear.       50
+I shun'd not, therefore, public haunts, but stray'd
+Careless in city, or suburban shade,
+And passing and repassing nymphs that mov'd
+With grace divine, beheld where'er I rov'd.
+Bright shone the vernal day, with double blaze,
+As beauty gave new force to Phoebus' rays.
+By no grave scruples check'd I freely eyed
+The dang'rous show, rash youth my only guide,
+And many a look of many a Fair unknown
+Met full, unable to control my own.                 60
+But one I mark'd (then peace forsook my breast)
+One--Oh how far superior to the rest!
+What lovely features! Such the Cyprian Queen
+Herself might wish, and Juno wish her mien.
+The very nymph was she, whom when I dar'd
+His arrows, Love had even then prepar'd.
+Nor was himself remote, nor unsupplied
+With torch well-trimm'd and quiver at his side;
+Now to her lips he clung, her eye-lids now,
+Then settled on her cheeks or on her brow.          70
+And with a thousand wounds from ev'ry part
+Pierced and transpierced my undefended heart.
+A fever, new to me, of fierce desire
+Now seiz'd my soul, and I was all on fire,
+But she, the while, whom only I adore,
+Was gone, and vanish'd to appear no more.
+In silent sadness I pursue my way,
+I pause, I turn, proceed, yet wish to stay,
+And while I follow her in thought, bemoan
+With tears my soul's delight so quickly flown.      80
+When Jove had hurl'd him to the Lemnian coast12
+So Vulcan sorrow'd for Olympus lost,
+And so Oeclides, sinking into night,
+From the deep gulph look'd up to distant light.13
+   Wretch that I am, what hopes for me remain
+Who cannot cease to love, yet love in vain?
+Oh could I once, once more, behold the Fair,
+Speak to her, tell her of the pangs I bear,
+Perhaps she is not adamant, would show
+Perhaps some pity at my tale of woe.                90
+Oh inauspicious flame--'tis mine to prove
+A matchless instance of disastrous love.
+Ah spare me, gentle Pow'r!--If such thou be
+Let not thy deeds, and nature disagree.
+Now I revere thy fires, thy bow, thy darts:
+Now own thee sov'reign of all human hearts.
+Spare me, and I will worship at no shrine
+With vow and sacrifice, save only thine.
+Remove! no--grant me still this raging woe!
+Sweet is the wretchedness, that lovers know:       100
+But pierce hereafter (should I chance to see
+One destined mine) at once both her and me.
+___________________________________________________________14
+
+Such were the trophies, that in earlier days,
+By vanity seduced I toil'd to raise,
+Studious yet indolent, and urg'd by youth,
+That worst of teachers, from the ways of Truth;
+Till learning taught me, in his shady bow'r,
+To quit love's servile yoke, and spurn his pow'r.
+Then, on a sudden, the fierce flame supprest,
+A frost continual settled on my breast,            110
+Whence Cupid fears his flames extinct to see,
+And Venus dreads a Diomede15 in me.
+
+1 i.e. "In my nineteenth year."
+
+2 Venus (Aphrodite), so called from Amethus in Cyprus, where she
+had a temple.
+
+3 Cupid, called after his mother's title.
+
+4 Ganymede, whom Jove, in the form of an eagle, spirited away to
+serve as his cup-bearer. See Ovid (Met. x, 155-161)
+
+5 The friend of Hercules, stolen by nymphs who had fallen in love
+with him.
+
+6 She fled from Apollo, and was transformed into a laurel.
+
+7 The Roman Crassus was defeated in 53 B.C. by the Parthian
+cavalry when they fired backwards with devastating effect. The Cydonians were
+also famed for their skill in archery.
+
+8 Cephalus, who shot his wife Procris by mistake.
+
+9 Hercules. 10 Telemon.
+
+11 Esculapius, who came to Rome in the form of a snake.
+
+12 Vulcan (Hephaestus) was cast down from Olympus to the isle of
+Lemnos.
+
+13 One of the Argonauts. He was swallowed up by the sea.
+
+14 A later retraction by Milton. The line appears in the original to separate it
+from what came before it.
+
+15 Diomedes wounded Venus (Aphrodite) at Troy. See Homer (Il. v,
+335-343)
+
+         On the Gunpowder Plot.1
+
+Cum simul in regem nuper satrapasque Britannos
+   Ausus es infandum perfide Fauxe nefas,
+Fallor? an & mitis voluisti ex parte videri,
+   Et pensare mala cum pietate scelus;
+Scilicet hos alti missurus ad atria caeli,
+   Sulphureo curru flammivolisque rotis.
+Qualiter ille feris caput inviolabile Parcis
+   Liquit Jordanios turbine raptus agros.
+
+1 The Poems on the subject of the Gunpowder Treason2 I have not
+translated, both because the matter of them is unpleasant, and
+because they are written with an asperity, which, however it might
+be warranted in Milton's day, would be extremely unseasonable
+now.--W.C.
+
+2 This includes "On the Fifth of November" below.
+
+
+         Another on the Same.
+
+Siccine tentasti caelo donasse Jacobum
+   Quae septemgemino Bellua monte lates?
+Ni meliora tuum poterit dare munera numen,
+   Parce precor donis insidiosa tuis.
+Ille quidem sine te consortia serus adivit
+   Astra, nec inferni pulveris usus ope.
+Sic potius foedus in caelum pelle cucullos,
+   Et quot habet brutos Roma profana Deos,
+Namque hac aut alia quemque adjuveris arte,
+   Crede mihi, caeli vix bene scandet iter.          10
+
+
+         Another on the Same.
+
+Purgatorem animae derisit Jacobus ignem,
+   Et sine quo superum non adeunda domus.
+Frenduit hoc trina monstrum Latiale corona
+   Movit & horrificum cornua dena minax.
+Et nec inultus ait temnes mea sacra Britanne,
+   Supplicium spreta relligione dabis.
+Et si stelligeras unquam penetraveris arces,
+   Non nisi per flammas triste patebit iter.
+O quam funesto cecinisti proxima vero,
+   Verbaque ponderibus vix caritura suis!           10
+Nam prope Tartareo sublime rotatus ab igni
+   Ibat ad aethereas umbra perusta plagas.
+
+
+         Another on the Same.
+
+Quem modo Roma suis devoverat impia diris,
+   Et Styge damnarat Taenarioque sinu,
+Hunc vice mutata jam tollere gestit ad astra,
+   Et cupit ad superos evehere usque Deos.
+
+
+    On the Inventor of Gunpowder.
+
+Praise in old time the sage Prometheus won,
+   Who stole ethereal radiance from the sun;
+But greater he, whose bold invention strove
+   To emulate the fiery bolts of Jove.
+
+
+         To Leonora,1 Singing in Rome.2
+
+Angelus unicuique suus (sic credite gentes)
+   Obtigit aethereis ales ab ordinibus.
+Quid mirum? Leonora tibi si gloria major,
+   Nam tua praesentem vox sonat ipsa Deum.
+Aut Deus, aut vacui certe mens tertia coeli
+   Pertua secreto guttura serpit agens;
+Serpit agens, facilisque docet mortalia corda
+   Sensim immortali assuescere posse sono.
+Quod si cuncta quidem Deus est, per cunctaque fusus,
+   In te una loquitur, caetera mutus habet.          10
+
+1 Leonora Baroni, celebrated Neapolitan singer. Milton heard her perform at the
+palace of Cardinal Barberini in I638.
+
+2 I have translated only two of the three poetical compliments
+addressed to Leonora, as they appear to me far superior to what
+I have omitted.--W.C.
+
+
+         Another to the Same.
+
+Another Leonora1 once inspir'd
+   Tasso, with fatal love to frenzy fir'd,
+But how much happier, liv'd he now, were he,
+   Pierced with whatever pangs for love of Thee!
+Since could he hear that heavenly voice of thine,
+   With Adriana's lute2 of sound divine,
+Fiercer than Pentheus'3 tho' his eye might roll,
+   Or idiot apathy benumb his soul,
+You still, with medicinal sounds, might cheer
+   His senses wandering in a blind career;          10
+And sweetly breathing thro' his wounded breast,
+   Charm, with soul-soothing song, his thoughts to rest.
+
+1 Leonora d'Este, supposed lover of Torquato Tasso.
+
+2 Adriana Baroni, who accompanied her daughter on the lute.
+
+3 A mad Theban king.
+
+
+         Another to the Same.
+
+Naples, too credulous, ah! boast no more
+   The sweet-voiced Siren buried on thy shore,
+That, when Parthenope1 deceas'd, she gave
+   Her sacred dust to a Chalcidic2 grave,
+For still she lives, but has exchanged the hoarse
+   Pausilipo for Tiber's placid course,
+Where, idol of all Rome, she now in chains,
+   Of magic song both Gods and Men detains.
+
+1 One of the Sirens.
+
+2 From Chalcis, whence the Greek colonies of South Italy came.
+
+
+The Fable of the Peasant and his Landlord.1
+
+A Peasant to his lord yearly court,
+   Presenting pippins of so rich a sort
+That he, displeased to have a part alone,
+   Removed the tree, that all might be his own.
+The tree, too old to travel, though before
+   So fruitful, withered, and would yield no more.
+The squire, perceiving all his labour void,
+   Cursed his own pains, so foolishly employed,
+And "Oh," he cried, "that I had lived content
+   With tribute, small indeed, but kindly meant!    10
+My avarice has expensive proved to me,
+   Has cost me both my pippins and my tree."
+
+1 Added to the Elegies in the I673 edition.
+
+
+
+2. POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES
+
+
+On the Death of the Vice-Chancellor,
+         A Physician.1
+
+Learn ye nations of the earth
+The condition of your birth,
+Now be taught your feeble state,
+Know, that all must yield to Fate!
+
+If the mournful Rover, Death,
+Say but once-resign your breath-
+Vainly of escape you dream,
+You must pass the Stygian stream.
+
+Could the stoutest overcome
+Death's assault, and baffle Doom,                   10
+Hercules had both withstood
+Undiseas'd by Nessus' blood.2
+
+Ne'er had Hector press'd the plain
+By a trick of Pallas slain,
+Nor the Chief to Jove allied3
+By Achilles' phantom died.
+
+Could enchantments life prolong,
+Circe, saved by magic song,
+Still had liv'd, and equal skill
+Had preserv'd Medea still.4                         20
+
+Dwelt in herbs and drugs a pow'r
+To avert Man's destin'd hour,
+Learn'd Machaon5 should have known
+Doubtless to avert his own.
+
+Chiron had survived the smart
+Of the Hydra-tainted dart,6
+And Jove's bolt had been with ease
+Foil'd by Asclepiades.7
+
+Thou too, Sage! of whom forlorn
+Helicon and Cirrha mourn,                           30
+Still had'st filled thy princely place,
+Regent of the gowned race,
+
+Had'st advanc'd to higher fame
+Still, thy much-ennobled name,
+Nor in Charon's skiff explored
+The Tartarean gulph abhorr'd.
+
+But resentful Proserpine,
+Jealous of thy skill divine,
+Snapping short thy vital thread
+Thee too number'd with the Dead.                    40
+
+Wise and good! untroubled be
+The green turf that covers thee,
+Thence in gay profusion grow
+All the sweetest flow'rs that blow!
+
+Pluto's Consort bid thee rest!
+Oeacus pronounce thee blest!
+To her home thy shade consign,
+Make Elysium ever thine!
+
+1 Dr. John Goslyn, Regius Professor of Medicine at Cambridge. He
+died on the 21st October, I626.
+
+2 A centaur whom Hercules shot with a poisoned arrow. Hercules was
+later poisoned by the centaur's blood-stained robe, which he was
+induced to put on.
+
+3 Sarpedon. See Homer (Il. xvi, 477-491).
+
+4 Circe and Medea were enchantresses.
+
+5 Son of Esculapius. He was a healer to the Greeks during the
+siege of Troy. See Homer (Il. xi, 514).
+
+6 The centaur Chiron was killed by Hercules's poisoned arrows.
+
+7 Esculapius. He was killed by Jove's lightning for having saved
+too many from death.
+
+
+         On the Fifth of November.
+              Anno Aetates 17.
+
+Am pius extrema veniens Jacobus ab arcto
+Teucrigenas populos, lateque patentia regna
+Albionum tenuit, jamque inviolabile foedus
+Sceptra Caledoniis conjunxerat Anglica Scotis:
+Pacificusque novo felix divesque sedebat
+In solio, occultique doli securus & hostis:
+Cum ferus ignifluo regnans Acheronte tyrannus,
+Eumenidum pater, aethereo vagus exul Olympo,
+Forte per immensum terrarum erraverat orbem,
+Dinumerans sceleris socios, vernasque fideles,      10
+Participes regni post funera moesta futuros;
+Hic tempestates medio ciet aere diras,
+Illic unanimes odium struit inter amicos,
+Armat & invictas in mutua viscera gentes;
+Regnaque olivifera vertit florentia pace,
+Et quoscunque videt purae virtutis amantes,
+Hos cupit adjicere imperio, fraudumque magister
+Tentat inaccessum sceleri corrumpere pectus,
+Insidiasque locat tacitas, cassesque latentes
+Tendit, ut incautos rapiat, seu Caspia Tigris       20
+Insequitur trepidam deserta per avia praedam
+Nocte sub illuni, & somno nictantibus astris.
+Talibus infestat populos Summanus & urbes
+Cinctus caeruleae fumanti turbine flammae.
+Jamque fluentisonis albentia rupibus arva
+Apparent, & terra Deo dilecta marino,
+Cui nomen dederat quondam Neptunia proles
+Amphitryoniaden qui non dubitavit atrocem
+Aequore tranato furiali poscere bello,
+Ante expugnatae crudelia saecula Troiae.            30
+   At simul hanc opibusque & festa pace beatam
+Aspicit, & pingues donis Cerealibus agros,
+Quodque magis doluit, venerantem numina veri
+Sancta Dei populum, tandem suspiria rupit
+Tartareos ignes & luridum olentia sulphur.
+Qualia Trinacria trux ab Jove clausus in Aetna
+Efflat tabifico monstrosus ab ore Tiphoeus.
+Ignescunt oculi, stridetque adamantinus ordo
+Dentis, ut armorum fragor, ictaque cuspide cuspis.
+Atque pererrato solum hoc lacrymabile mundo         40
+Inveni, dixit, gens haec mihi sola rebellis,
+Contemtrixque jugi, nostraque potentior arte.
+Illa tamen, mea si quicquam tentamina possunt,
+Non feret hoc impune diu, non ibit inulta,
+Hactenus; & piceis liquido natat aere pennis;
+Qua volat, adversi praecursant agmine venti,
+Densantur nubes, & crebra tonitrua fulgent.
+   Jamque pruinosas velox superaverat alpes,
+Et tenet Ausoniae fines, a parte sinistra
+Nimbifer Appenninus erat, priscique Sabini,         50
+Dextra veneficiis infamis Hetruria, nec non
+Te furtiva Tibris Thetidi videt oscula dantem;
+Hinc Mavortigenae consistit in arce Quirini.
+Reddiderant dubiam jam sera crepuscula lucem,
+Cum circumgreditur totam Tricoronifer urbem,
+Panificosque Deos portat, scapulisque virorum
+Evehitur, praeeunt summisso poplite reges,
+Et mendicantum series longissima fratrum;
+Cereaque in manibus gestant funalia caeci,
+Cimmeriis nati in tenebris, vitamque trahentes.     60
+Templa dein multis subeunt lucentia taedis
+(Vesper erat sacer iste Petro) fremitoesque canentum
+Saepe tholos implet vacuos, & inane locorum.
+Qualiter exululat Bromius, Bromiique caterva,
+Orgia cantantes in Echionio Aracyntho,
+Dum tremit attonitus vitreis Asopus in undis,
+Et procul ipse cava responsat rupe Cithaeron.
+   His igitur tandem solenni more peractis,
+Nox senis amplexus Erebi taciturna reliquit,
+Praecipitesque impellit equos stimulante flagello,  70
+Captum oculis Typhlonta, Melanchaetemque ferocem,
+Atque Acherontaeo prognatam patre Siopen
+Torpidam, & hirsutis horrentem Phrica capillis.
+Interea regum domitor, Phlegetontius haeres
+Ingreditur thalamos (neque enim secretus adulter
+Producit steriles molli sine pellice noctes)
+At vix compositos somnus claudebat ocellos,
+Cum niger umbrarum dominus, rectorque silentum,
+Praedatorque hominum falsa sub imagine tectus
+Astitit, assumptis micuerunt tempora canis,         80
+Barba sinus promissa tegit, cineracea longo
+Syrmate verrit humum vestis, pendetque cucullus
+Vertice de raso, & ne quicquam desit ad artes,
+Cannabeo lumbos constrinxit fune salaces,
+Tarda fenestratis figens vestigia calceis.
+Talis uti fama est, vasta Franciscus eremo
+Tetra vagabatur solus per lustra ferarum,
+Sylvestrique tulit genti pia verba salutis
+Impius, atque lupos domuit, Lybicosque leones.
+   Subdolus at tali Serpens velatus amictu          90
+Solvit in has fallax ora execrantia voces;
+Dormis nate? Etiamne tuos sopor opprimit artus?
+Immemor O fidei, pecorumque oblite tuorum,
+Dum cathedram venerande tuam, diadmaque triplex
+Ridet Hyperboreo gens barbara nata sub axe,
+Dumque pharetrati spernunt tua jura Britanni;
+Surge, age, surge piger, Latius quem Caesar adorat,
+Cui reserata patet convexi janua caeli,
+Turgentes animos, & fastus frange procaces,
+Sacrilegique sciant, tua quid maledictio possit,   100
+Et quid Apostolicae possit custodia clavis;
+Et memor Hesperiae disjectam ulciscere classem,
+Mersaque Iberorum lato vexilla profundo,
+Sanctorumque cruci tot corpora fixa probrosae,
+Thermodoontea nuper regnante puella.
+At tu si tenero mavis torpescere lecto
+Crescentesque negas hosti contundere vires,
+Tyrrhenum implebit numeroso milite Pontum,
+Signaque Aventino ponet fulgentia colle:
+Relliquias veterum franget, flammisque cremabit,   110
+Sacraque calcabit pedibus tua colla profanis,
+Cujus gaudebant soleis dare basia reges.
+Nec tamen hunc bellis & aperto Marte lacesses,
+Irritus ille labor, tu callidus utere fraude,
+Quaelibet haereticis disponere retia fas est;
+Jamque ad consilium extremis rex magnus ab oris
+Patricios vocat, & procerum de stirpe creatos,
+Grandaevosque patres trabea, canisque verendos;
+Hos tu membratim poteris conspergere in auras,
+Atque dare in cineres, nitrati pulveris igne       120
+Aedibus injecto, qua convenere, sub imis.
+Protinus ipse igitur quoscumque habet Anglia fidos
+Propositi, factique mone, quisquamne tuorum
+Audebit summi non jussa facessere Papae.
+Perculsosque metu subito, cas£mque stupentes
+Invadat vel Gallus atrox, vel saevus Iberus
+Saecula sic illic tandem Mariana redibunt,
+Tuque in belligeros iterum dominaberis Anglos.
+Et nequid timeas, divos divasque secundas
+Accipe, quotque tuis celebrantur numina fastis.    130
+Dixit & adscitos ponens malefidus amictus
+Fugit ad infandam, regnum illaetabile, Lethen.
+   Jam rosea Eoas pandens Tithonia portas
+Vestit inauratas redeunti lumine terras;
+Maestaque adhuc nigri deplorans funera nati
+Irrigat ambrosiis montana cacumina guttis;
+Cum somnos pepulit stellatae janitor aulae
+Nocturnos visus, & somnia grata revolvens.
+   Est locus aeterna septus caligine noctis
+Vasta ruinosi quondam fundamina tecti,             140
+Nunc torvi spelunca Phoni, Prodotaeque bilinguis
+Effera quos uno peperit Discordia partu.
+Hic inter caementa jacent praeruptaque saxa,
+Ossa inhumata virum, & trajecta cadavera ferro;
+Hic Dolus intortis semper sedet ater ocellis,
+Jurgiaque, & stimulis armata Calumnia fauces,
+Et Furor, atque viae moriendi mille videntur
+Et Timor, exanguisque locum circumvolat Horror,
+Perpetuoque leves per muta silentia Manes
+Exululant, tellus & sanguine conscia stagnat.      150
+Ipsi etiam pavidi latitant penetralibus antri
+Et Phonos, & Prodotes, nulloque sequente per antrum
+Antrum horrens, scopulosum, atrum feralibus umbris
+Diffugiunt sontes, & retro lumina vortunt,
+Hos pugiles Romae per saecula longa fideles
+Evocat antistes Babylonius, atque ita fatur.
+Finibus occiduis circumfusum incolit aequor
+Gens exosa mihi, prudens natura negavit
+Indignam penitus nostro conjungere mundo;
+Illuc, sic jubeo, celeri contendite gressu,        160
+Tartareoque leves difflentur pulvere in auras
+Et rex & pariter satrapae, scelerata propago
+Et quotquot fidei caluere cupidine verae
+Consilii socios adhibete, operisque ministros.
+Finierat, rigidi cupide paruere gemelli.
+   Interea longo flectens curvamine caelos
+Despicit aetherea dominus qui fulgurat arce,
+Vanaque perversae ridet conamina turbae,
+Atque sui causam populi volet ipse tueri.
+   Esse ferunt spatium, qua distat ab Aside terra  170
+Fertilis Europe, & spectat Mareotidas undas;
+Hic turris posita est Titanidos ardua Famae
+Aerea, lata, sonans, rutilis vicinior astris
+Quam superimpositum vel Athos vel Pelion Ossae
+Mille fores aditusque patent, totidemque fenestrae,
+Amplaque per tenues translucent atria muros;
+Excitat hic varios plebs agglomerata susurros;
+Qualiter instrepitant circum mulctralia bombis
+Agmina muscarum, aut texto per ovilia junco,
+Dum Canis aestivum coeli petit ardua culmen        180
+Ipsa quidem summa sedet ultrix matris in arce,
+Auribus innumeris cinctum caput eminet olli,
+Queis sonitum exiguum trahit, atque levissima captat
+Murmura, ab extremis patuli confinibus orbis.
+Nec tot Aristoride servator inique juvencae
+Isidos, immiti volvebas lumina vultu,
+Lumina non unquam tacito nutantia somno,
+Lumina subjectas late spectantia terras.
+Istis illa solet loca luce carentia saepe
+Perlustrare, etiam radianti impervia soli.         190
+Millenisque loquax auditaque visaque linguis
+Cuilibet effundit temeraria, veraque mendax
+Nunc minuit, modo confictis sermonibus auget.
+Sed tamen a nostro meruisti carmine laudes
+Fama, bonum quo non aliud veracius ullum,
+Nobis digna cani, nec te memorasse pigebit
+Carmine tam longo, servati scilicet Angli
+Officiis vaga diva tuis, tibi reddimus aequa.
+Te Deus aeternos motu qui temperat ignes,
+Fulmine praemisso alloquitur, terraque tremente:   200
+Fama siles? an te latet impia Papistarum
+Conjurata cohors in meque meosque Britannos,
+Et nova sceptrigero caedes meditata Jacobo:
+Nec plura, illa statim sensit mandata Tonantis,
+Et satis ante fugax stridentes induit alas,
+Induit & variis exilia corpora plumis;
+Dextra tubam gestat Temesaeo ex aere sonoram.
+Nec mora jam pennis cedentes remigat auras,
+Atque parum est cursu celeres praevertere nubes,
+Jam ventos, jam solis equos post terga reliquit:   210
+Et primo Angliacas solito de more per urbes
+Ambiguas voces, incertaque murmura spargit,
+Mox arguta dolos, & detestabile vulgat
+Proditionis opus, nec non facta horrida dictu,
+Authoresque addit sceleris, nec garrula caecis
+Insidiis loca structa silet; stupuere relatis,
+Et pariter juvenes, pariter tremuere puellae,
+Effaetique senes pariter, tanteaeque ruinae
+Sensus ad aetatem subito penetraverat omnem
+Attamen interea populi miserescit ab alto          220
+Aethereus pater, & crudelibus obstitit ausis
+Papicolum; capti poenas raptantur ad acres;
+At pia thura Deo, & grati solvuntur honores;
+Compita laeta focis genialibus omnia fumant;
+Turba choros juvenilis agit: Quintoque Novembris
+Null Dies toto occurrit celebratior anno.
+
+
+    On the Death of the Bishop of Ely.1
+              Anno Aetates 17.
+
+My lids with grief were tumid yet,
+And still my sullied cheek was wet
+With briny dews profusely shed
+For venerable Winton dead,2
+When Fame, whose tales of saddest sound
+Alas! are ever truest found,
+The news through all our cities spread
+Of yet another mitred head
+By ruthless Fate to Death consign'd,
+Ely, the honour of his kind.                        10
+At once, a storm of passion heav'd
+My boiling bosom, much I grieved
+But more I raged, at ev'ry breath
+Devoting Death himself to death.
+With less revenge did Naso3 teem
+When hated Ibis was his theme;
+With less, Archilochus,4 denied
+The lovely Greek, his promis'd bride.
+But lo! while thus I execrate,
+Incens'd, the Minister of Fate,                     20
+Wondrous accents, soft, yet clear,
+Wafted on the gale I hear.
+Ah, much deluded! lay aside
+Thy threats and anger misapplied.
+Art not afraid with sounds like these
+T'offend whom thou canst not appease?
+Death is not (wherefore dream'st thou thus?)
+The son of Night and Erebus,
+Nor was of fel1 Erynnis born5
+In gulphs, where Chaos rules forlorn,               30
+But sent from God, his presence leaves,
+To gather home his ripen'd sheaves,
+To call encumber'd souls away
+From fleshly bonds to boundless day,
+ (As when the winged Hours excite,
+And summon forth the Morning-light)
+And each to convoy to her place
+Before th'Eternal Father's face.
+But not the wicked-Them, severe
+Yet just, from all their pleasures here             40
+He hurries to the realms below,
+Terrific realms of penal woe!
+Myself no sooner heard his call
+Than, scaping through my prison-wall,
+I bade adieu to bolts and bars,
+And soar'd with angels to the stars,
+Like Him of old, to whom 'twas giv'n
+To mount, on fiery wheels, to heav'n.
+Bootes' wagon,6 slow with cold
+Appall'd me not, nor to behold                      50
+The sword that vast Orion draws,
+Or ev'n the Scorpion's horrid claws.7
+Beyond the Sun's bright orb I fly,
+And far beneath my feet descry
+Night's dread goddess, seen with awe,
+Whom her winged dragons draw.
+Thus, ever wond'ring at my speed
+Augmented still as I proceed,
+I pass the Planetary sphere,
+The Milky Way--and now appear                       60
+Heav'ns crystal battlements, her door
+Of massy pearl, and em'rald floor.
+But here I cease. For never can
+The tongue of once a mortal man
+In suitable description trace
+The pleasures of that happy place,
+Suffice it that those joys divine
+Are all, and all for ever, mine.
+
+1 Nicholas Felton.
+
+2 Dr. Felton died a few days after Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester.
+See Milton's Third Elegy.
+
+3 Ovid.
+
+4 A Greek poet. He was refused by Lycambes as a suitor to his daughters, and in
+revenge lampooned the entire family. Lycambes's daughters hanged themselves.
+
+5 Erebus and Erynnis are Furies.
+
+6 See Milton's Fifth Elegy, line 6, and the note thereto.
+
+7 The constellation Scorpio.
+
+
+
+    That Nature is Not Subject to Decay.
+
+Ah, how the Human Mind wearies herself
+With her own wand'rings, and, involved in gloom
+Impenetrable, speculates amiss!
+Measuring, in her folly, things divine
+By human, laws inscrib'd on adamant
+By laws of Man's device, and counsels fix'd
+For ever, by the hours, that pass, and die.
+How?--shall the face of Nature then be plow'd
+Into deep wrinkles, and shall years at last
+On the great Parent fix a sterile curse?            10
+Shall even she confess old age, and halt
+And, palsy-smitten, shake her starry brows?
+Shall foul Antiquity with rust and drought
+And famine vex the radiant worlds above?
+Shall Time's unsated maw crave and engulf
+The very heav'ns that regulate his flight?
+And was the Sire of all able to fence
+His works, and to uphold the circling worlds,
+But through improvident and heedless haste
+Let slip th'occasion?--So then--All is lost--       20
+And in some future evil hour, yon arch
+Shall crumble and come thund'ring down, the poles
+Jar in collision, the Olympian King
+Fall with his throne, and Pallas, holding forth
+The terrors of her Gorgon shield in vain,1
+Shall rush to the abyss, like Vulcan hurl'd
+Down into Lemnos through the gate of heav'n.
+Thou also, with precipitated wheels
+Phoebus! thy own son's fall shalt imitate,
+With hideous ruin shalt impress the Deep            30
+Suddenly, and the flood shall reek and hiss
+At the extinction of the Lamp of Day.
+Then too, shall Haemus cloven to his base
+Be shattered, and the huge Ceraunian hills,2
+Once weapons of Tartarean Dis, immersed
+In Erebus, shall fill Himself with fear.
+    No. The Almighty Father surer lay'd
+His deep foundations, and providing well
+For the event of all, the scales of Fate
+Suspended, in just equipoise, and bade              40
+His universal works from age to age
+One tenour hold, perpetual, undisturb'd.
+    Hence the Prime Mover wheels itself about
+Continual, day by day, and with it bears
+In social measure swift the heav'ns around.
+Not tardier now is Saturn than of old,
+Nor radiant less the burning casque of Mars.
+Phoebus, his vigour unimpair'd, still shows
+Th'effulgence of his youth, nor needs the God
+A downward course that he may warm the vales;       50
+But, ever rich in influence, runs his road,
+Sign after sign, through all the heav'nly zone.
+Beautiful as at first ascends the star3
+From odorif'rous Ind, whose office is
+To gather home betimes th'ethereal flock,
+To pour them o'er the skies again at Eve,
+And to discriminate the Night and Day.
+Still Cynthia's changeful horn waxes and wanes
+Alternate, and with arms extended still
+She welcomes to her breast her brother's beams.     60
+Nor have the elements deserted yet
+Their functions, thunder with as loud a stroke
+As erst, smites through the rocks and scatters them,
+The East still howls, still the relentless North
+Invades the shudd'ring Scythian, still he breathes
+The Winter, and still rolls the storms along.
+The King of Ocean with his wonted force
+Beats on Pelorus,4 o'er the Deep is heard
+The hoarse alarm of Triton's sounding shell,
+Nor swim the monsters of th'Aegean sea              70
+In shallows, or beneath diminish'd waves.
+Thou too, thy antient vegetative pow'r
+Enjoy'st, O Earth! Narcissus still is sweet,
+And, Phoebus! still thy Favourite, and still
+Thy Fav'rite, Cytherea!5 both retain
+Their beauty, nor the mountains, ore-enrich'd
+For punishment of Man, with purer gold
+Teem'd ever, or with brighter gems the Deep.
+    Thus, in unbroken series all proceeds
+And shall, till, wide involving either pole,        80
+And the immensity of yonder heav'n,
+The final flames of destiny absorb
+The world, consum'd in one enormous pyre!
+
+1 Pallas Athena (Minerva) had the head of the Gorgon Medusa in her shield; it
+turned all who looked upon it into stone.
+
+2 Phaeton, who fled from the chariot of the Sun while driving it.
+
+3 Venus.
+
+4 The North-east promontory of Sicily.
+
+5 The Hyacinth, favorite of Apollo. The Anemone, favorite of Venus.
+
+
+On the Platonic 'Ideal' as it was Understood by Aristotle.
+
+Ye sister Pow'rs who o'er the sacred groves
+Preside, and, Thou, fair mother of them all
+Mnemosyne,1 and thou, who in thy grot
+Immense reclined at leisure, hast in charge
+The Archives and the ord'nances of Jove,
+And dost record the festivals of heav'n,
+Eternity!--Inform us who is He,
+That great Original by Nature chos'n
+To be the Archetype of Human-kind,
+Unchangeable, Immortal, with the poles              10
+Themselves coaeval, One, yet ev'rywhere,
+An image of the god, who gave him Being?
+Twin-brother of the Goddess born from Jove,2
+He dwells not in his Father's mind, but, though
+Of common nature with ourselves, exists
+Apart, and occupies a local home.
+Whether, companion of the stars, he spend
+Eternal ages, roaming at his will
+From sphere to sphere the tenfold heav'ns, or dwell
+On the moon's side that nearest neighbours Earth,
+Or torpid on the banks of Lethe3 sit                20
+Among the multitude of souls ordair'd
+To flesh and blood, or whether (as may chance)
+That vast and giant model of our kind
+In some far-distant region of this globe
+Sequester'd stalk, with lifted head on high
+O'ertow'ring Atlas, on whose shoulders rest
+The stars, terrific even to the Gods.
+Never the Theban Seer,4 whose blindness proved
+His best illumination, Him beheld                   30
+In secret vision; never him the son
+Of Pleione,5 amid the noiseless night
+Descending, to the prophet-choir reveal'd;
+Him never knew th'Assyrian priest,6 who yet
+The ancestry of Ninus7 chronicles,
+And Belus, and Osiris far-renown'd;
+Nor even Thrice-great Hermes,7 although skill'd
+So deep in myst'ry, to the worshippers
+Of Isis show'd a prodigy like Him.
+    And thou,8 who hast immortalized the shades     40
+Of Academus, if the school received
+This monster of the Fancy first from Thee,
+Either recall at once the banish'd bards
+To thy Republic, or, thyself evinc'd
+A wilder Fabulist, go also forth.
+
+1 Goddess of Memory and mother of the Muses.
+
+2 Pallas Athena.
+
+3 Waters of oblivion and forgetfulness.
+
+4 Tiresins. See Milton's Sixth Elegy, line 68.
+
+5 Hermes (Mercury).
+
+6 Perhaps the legendary Phoenician sage, Sanchuniathon.
+
+7 A legendary Assyrian king. Belus is the Assyrian god Bel.
+
+7 Hermes Trismegistus, author of Neo-Platonic works must esteemed.
+
+8 Plato.
+
+
+              To My Father.
+
+Oh that Pieria's spring1 would thro' my breast
+Pour its inspiring influence, and rush
+No rill, but rather an o'erflowing flood!
+That, for my venerable Father's sake
+All meaner themes renounced, my Muse, on wings
+Of Duty borne, might reach a loftier strain.
+For thee, my Father! howsoe'er it please,
+She frames this slender work, nor know I aught,
+That may thy gifts more suitably requite;
+Though to requite them suitably would ask           10
+Returns much nobler, and surpassing far
+The meagre stores of verbal gratitude.
+But, such as I possess, I send thee all.
+This page presents thee in their full amount
+With thy son's treasures, and the sum is nought;
+Naught, save the riches that from airy dreams
+In secret grottos and in laurel bow'rs,
+I have, by golden Clio's2 gift, acquir'd.
+    Verse is a work divine; despise not thou
+Verse therefore, which evinces (nothing more)       20
+Man's heav'nly source, and which, retaining still
+Some scintillations of Promethean fire,
+Bespeaks him animated from above.
+The Gods love verse; the infernal Pow'rs themselves
+Confess the influence of verse, which stirs
+The lowest Deep, and binds in triple chains
+Of adamant both Pluto and the shades.
+In verse the Delphic priestess, and the pale
+Tremulous Sybil make the Future known,
+And He who sacrifices, on the shrine                30
+Hangs verse, both when he smites the threat'ning bull,
+And when he spreads his reeking entrails wide
+To scrutinize the Fates envelop'd there.
+We too, ourselves, what time we seek again
+Our native skies, and one eternal Now
+Shall be the only measure of our Being,
+Crown'd all with gold, and chanting to the lyre
+Harmonious verse, shall range the courts above,
+And make the starry firmament resound.
+And, even now, the fiery Spirit pure                40
+That wheels yon circling orbs, directs, himself,
+Their mazy dance with melody of verse
+Unutt'rable, immortal, hearing which
+Huge Ophiuchus3 holds his hiss suppress'd,
+Orion, soften'd, drops his ardent blade,
+And Atlas stands unconscious of his load.
+Verse graced of old the feasts of kings, ere yet
+Luxurious dainties destin'd to the gulph
+Immense of gluttony were known, and ere
+Lyaeus4 deluged yet the temp'rate board.            50
+Then sat the bard a customary guest
+To share the banquet, and, his length of locks
+With beechen honours bound, proposed in verse
+The characters of Heroes and their deeds
+To imitation, sang of Chaos old,
+Of Nature's birth, of Gods that crept in search
+Of acorns fall'n, and of the thunderbolt
+Not yet produc'd from Aetna's fiery cave.
+And what avails, at last, tune without voice,
+Devoid of matter? Such may suit perhaps             60
+The rural dance, but such was ne'er the song
+Of Orpheus, whom the streams stood still to hear
+And the oaks follow'd. Not by chords alone
+Well-touch'd, but by resistless accents more
+To sympathetic tears the Ghosts themselves
+He mov'd: these praises to his verse he owes.
+    Nor Thou persist, I pray thee, still to slight
+The sacred Nine, and to imagine vain
+And useless, Pow'rs by whom inspir'd, thyself
+Art skillfill to associate verse with airs          70
+Harmonious, and to give the human voice
+A thousand modulations, heir by right
+Indisputable of Arion's fame.5
+Now say, what wonder is it, if a son
+Of thine delight in verse, if so conjoin'd
+In close affinity, we sympathize
+In social arts and kindred studies sweet?
+Such distribution of himself to us
+Was Phoebus' choice; thou hast thy gift, and I
+Mine also, and between us we receive,               80
+Father and son, the whole inspiring God.
+    No. Howsoe'er the semblance thou assume
+Of hate, thou hatest not the gentle Muse,
+My Father! for thou never bad'st me tread
+The beaten path and broad that leads right on
+To opulence, nor did'st condemn thy son
+To the insipid clamours of the bar,
+To laws voluminous and ill observ'd,
+But, wishing to enrich me more, to fill
+My mind with treasure, led'st me far away           90
+From city-din to deep retreats, to banks
+And streams Aonian,6 and, with free consent
+Didst place me happy at Apollo's side.
+I speak not now, on more important themes
+Intent, of common benefits, and such
+As Nature bids, but of thy larger gifts
+My Father! who, when I had open'd once
+The stores of Roman rhetoric, and learn'd
+The full-ton'd language, of the eloquent Greeks,
+Whose lofty music grac'd the lips of Jove,         100
+Thyself did'st counsel me to add the flow'rs
+That Gallia7 boasts, those too with which the smooth
+Italian his degentrate speech adorns,
+That witnesses his mixture with the Goth,
+And Palestine's prophetic songs divine.8
+To sum the whole, whate'er the Heav'n contains,
+The Earth beneath it, and the Air between,
+The Rivers and the restless deep, may all
+Prove intellectual gain to me, my wish
+Concurring with thy will; Science herself,         110
+All cloud removed, inclines her beauteous head
+And offers me the lip, if, dull of heart,
+I shrink not and decline her gracious boon.
+    Go now, and gather dross, ye sordid minds
+That covet it; what could my Father more,
+What more could Jove himself, unless he gave
+His own abode, the heav'n in which he reigns?
+More eligible gifts than these were not
+Apollo's to his son, had they been safe
+As they were insecure, who made the boy            120
+The world's vice-luminary, bade him rule
+The radiant chariot of the day, and bind
+To his young brows his own all dazzling-wreath.
+I therefore, although last and least, my place
+Among the Learned in the laurel-grove
+Will hold, and where the conqu'ror's ivy twines,
+Henceforth exempt from th'unletter'd throng
+Profane, nor even to be seen by such.
+Away then, sleepless Care, Complaint away,
+And Envy, with thy "jealous leer malign"           130
+Nor let the monster Calumny shoot forth
+Her venom'd tongue at me. Detested foes!
+Ye all are impotent against my peace,
+For I am privileged, and bear my breast
+Safe, and too high, for your viperean wound.
+    But thou my Father! since to render thanks
+Equivalent, and to requite by deeds
+Thy liberality, exceeds my power,
+Sufffice it, that I thus record thy gifts,
+And bear them treasur'd in a grateful mind!        140
+Ye too, the favourite pastime of my youth,
+My voluntary numbers, if ye dare
+To hope longevity, and to survive
+Your master's funeral pile, not soon absorb'd
+In the oblivious Lethaean gulph
+Shall to Futurity perhaps convey
+This theme, and by these praises of my sire
+Improve the Fathers of a distant age.
+
+1 A fount sacred to the Muses. 2 The Muse of History.
+
+3 The Serpent, a constellation.
+
+4 Bacchus, or Wine.
+
+5 John Milton Sr. was a fine musician. Arion was a lyric poet of
+Methymna, in Lesbos, who was saved from drowning by dolphins which
+he charmed with his song.
+
+6 Aonia is a plain in Boeotia. 7 France.
+
+8 The Old Testament Scriptures.
+
+
+          Psalm CXIV 1
+
+When Israel by Jehovah call'd
+   From Egypt's hostile plain,
+Pour'd forth in numbers as the Sand
+   And sought the adjacent main:
+Then God descended from on high
+   To lead the favour'd Race
+To rule o'er Jacob, & his Name
+   In Judah's Tribe to place.
+The Sea at their approach alarm'd
+   In wild amazement fled                           10
+And Jordan's flood was driven back
+   Within it's fountainhead.
+The Mountains from their basis shook
+   Confess'd the Parent God!
+With sudden throws like Rams they skipp'd
+   And broken, fell abroad.
+The little Hills by the same power
+   Were from their Center torn
+Like Lambs resistless they gave way
+   In Tumult wild, upborn.                          20
+Ye Waves what strange amazement, say,
+   Seiz'd on you that you fled?
+Thou Jordan too! On Israel's march,
+   Why driven to thy Head?
+Ye Mountains whence this sudden fright
+   That shook you from your base?
+And whence, ye little Hills, your flight
+   From Israel's chosen Race?
+Tremble thou Earth! Jehovah leads,
+   And guards the might Host!                       30
+That God, who by his awful Word,
+   Commands the Stream to flow2
+From flinty Rocks; & pouring thence,
+   To form the Lake below.
+
+1 Translated from the Latin, and not Milton's Greek poem. Milton's
+own English version, presented below, was done, he tells us, "at
+fifteen years old."
+
+2 See Exodus, chapter I7.
+
+
+              Psalm CXIV
+
+When the blest seed of Terah's faithful Son,1
+After long toil their liberty had won,
+And past from Pharian2 fields to Canaan Land,
+Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,
+Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
+His praise and glory was in Israel known.
+That saw the troubl'd Sea, and shivering fled,
+And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
+Low in the earth, Jordan's clear streams recoil,
+As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.        10
+The high, huge-bellied Mountains skip like Rams
+Amongst their Ewes, the little Hills like Lambs.
+Why fled the Ocean? And why skip'd the Mountains?
+Why turned Jordan toward his Crystal Fountains?
+Shake earth, and at the presence be aghast
+Of him that ever was, and ay shall last,
+That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
+And make soft rills from the fiery flint-stones gush.
+
+1 Abraham. 2 Egyptian.
+
+
+         The Philosopher and the King.
+
+A Philosopher, included in the same sentence of condemnation with
+several guilty persons among whom he had been apprehended, sent
+the following lines, composed suddenly in the moment when he was
+going to death, to a certain King whom had ignorantly condemned
+him.
+
+Know this, O King! that if thou shalt destroy
+Me, no man's enemy and who have liv'd
+Obedient to the Laws, thou may'st with ease
+Strike off a wise man's head, but, taught the truth
+Hereafter, shalt with vain regret deplore
+Thy city's loss of One, her chief support.
+
+
+         On the Engraver of his Portrait.1
+
+Survey my Features--you will own it clear
+That little skill has been exerted here.
+My Friends, who know me not here smile to see
+How ill the model and the work agree.
+
+1 Greek lines placed by Milton beneath the engraved portrait of
+himself by William Marshall in the I645 edition of his poems. The
+handsome Milton disliked Marshall's picture and took revenge with
+this epigram, which Marshall, ignorant of Greek, engraved beneath
+the portrait.
+
+         Another Translation of the Same.2
+
+Look on myself--you will own at once
+This Copy of me, taken by a Dunce.
+My Friends, who gaze and guess not whom ye see,
+Laugh! Would ye think it? He intended me!
+
+
+
+To Giovanni Salzilli, a Roman Poet, in his Illness.
+                   Scazons.1
+
+My halting Muse, that dragg'st by choice along
+Thy slow, slow step, in melancholy song!
+And lik'st that pace expressive of thy cares
+Not less than Diopeia's2 sprightlier airs
+When in the dance she beats with measur'd tread
+Heav'n's floor in front of Juno's golden bed,
+Salute Salsillus, who to verse divine
+Prefers, with partial love, such lays as mine.
+Thus writes that Milton then, who wafted o'er
+From his own nest on Albion's stormy shore          10
+Where Eurus, fiercest of th'Aeolian band,
+Sweeps with ungovern'd rage the blasted land,
+Of late to more serene Ausonia came
+To view her cities of illustrious name,
+To prove, himself a witness of the truth,
+How wise her elders, and how learn'd her Youth.
+Much good, Salsillus! and a body free
+From all disease, that Milton asks for thee,
+Who now endur'st the languor, and the pains
+That bile inflicts diffus'd through all thy veins,  20
+Relentless malady! not mov'd to spare
+By thy sweet Roman voice, and Lesbian air!
+    Health, Hebe's sister, sent us from the skies,
+And thou, Apollo, whom all sickness flies,
+Pythius, or Paean, or what name divine
+Soe'er thou chuse, haste, heal a priest of thine!
+Ye groves of Faunus, and ye hills that melt
+With vinous dews, where meek Evander3 dwelt!
+If aught salubrious in your confines grow,
+Strive which shall soonest heal your poet's woe,    30
+That, render'd to the Muse he loves, again
+He may enchant the meadows with his strain.
+Numa, reclin'd in everlasting ease
+Amid the shade of dark embow'ring trees,
+Viewing with eyes of unabated fire
+His loved Aegeria, shall that strain admire:
+So sooth'd, the tumid Tiber shall revere
+The tombs of kings, nor desolate the year,
+Shall curb his waters with a friendly rein,
+And guide them harmless till they meet the main.    40
+
+1 The original is written in a measure called Scazon, which
+signifies limping, and the measure is so denominated,
+because, though in other respects Iambic, it terminates with
+a Spondee, and has consequently a more tardy movement.
+   The reader will immediately see that this property of the
+Latin verse cannot be imitated in English.--W.C.
+
+2 Diopeia was one of Juno's nymphs.
+
+3 The Aventine hill. Evander, great-grandson of Pallas, King of
+Arcadia, migrated to Italy about sixty years before the Trojan
+War.
+
+
+                   To Giovanni Battista Manso,
+                        Marquis of Villa.
+
+1Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of Villa, is an Italian
+Nobleman of the highest estimation among his countrymen, for
+Genius, Literature,and military accomplishments. To Him
+Torquato Tasso addressed his "Dialogue on Friendship," for he
+was much the friend of Tasso, who has also celebrated him
+among the other princes of his country, in his poem entitled
+"Jerusalem Conquered" (Book XX).
+
+         Among cavaliers magnanimous and courteous
+         --Manso is resplendent.
+
+During the Author's stay at Naples he received at the hands
+of the Marquis a thousand kind offices and civilities, and,
+desirous not to appear ungrateful, sent him this poem a short
+time before his departure from that city.
+
+
+These verses also to thy praise the Nine2
+Oh Manso! happy in that theme design,
+For, Gallus and Maecenas3 gone, they see
+None such besides, or whom they love as Thee,
+And, if my verse may give the meed of fame,
+Thine too shall prove an everlasting name.
+Already such, it shines in Tasso's page
+(For thou wast Tasso's friend) from age to age,
+And, next, the Muse consign'd, not unaware
+How high the charge, Marini4 to thy care,           10
+Who, singing, to the nymphs, Adonis' praise,
+Boasts thee the patron of his copious lays.
+To thee alone the Poet would entrust
+His latest vows, to thee alone his dust,
+And Thou with punctual piety hast paid
+In labour'd brass thy tribute to his shade.
+Nor this contented thee-but lest the grave
+Should aught absorb of their's, which thou could'st save,
+All future ages thou has deign'd to teach
+The life, lot, genius, character of each,           20
+Eloquent as the Carian sage,5 who, true
+To his great theme, the Life of Homer drew.
+    I, therefore, though a stranger youth, who come
+Chill'd by rude blasts that freeze my Northern home,
+Thee dear to Clio confident proclaim,
+And Thine, for Phoebus' sake, a deathless name.
+Nor Thou, so kind, wilt view with scornful eye
+A Muse scarce rear'd beneath our sullen sky,
+Who fears not, indiscrete as she is young,
+To seek in Latium hearers of her song.              30
+We too, where Thames with his unsullied waves
+The tresses of the blue-hair'd Ocean laves,
+Hear oft by night, or, slumb'ring, seem to hear
+O'er his wide stream, the swan's voice warbling clear,
+And we could boast a Tityrus6 of yore,
+Who trod, a welcome guest, your happy shore.
+    Yes, dreary as we own our Northern clime,
+E'en we to Phoebus raise the polish'd rhyme,
+We too serve Phoebus; Phoebus has receiv'd,
+(If legends old may claim to be believ'd)           40
+No sordid gifts from us, the golden ear,
+The burnish'd apple, ruddiest of the year,
+The fragrant crocus, and, to grace his fane,
+Fair damsels chosen from the Druid train-
+Druids, our native bards in ancient time,
+Who Gods and Heroes prais'd in hallow'd rhyme.
+Hence, often as the maids of Greece surround
+Apollo's shrine with hymns of festive sound,
+They name the virgins who arriv'd of yore
+With British off'rings on the Delian shore,         50
+Loxo, from Giant Corineus sprung,
+Upis, on whose blest lips the Future hung,
+And Hecaerge7 with the golden hair,
+All deck'd with Pic'ish hues, and all with bosoms bare.
+Thou therefore, happy Sage, whatever clime
+Shall ring with Tasso's praise in after-time,
+Or with Marini's, shalt be known their friend,
+And with an equal flight to fame ascend.
+The world shall hear how Phoebus and the Nine
+Were inmates, once, and willing guests of thine.    60
+Yet Phoebus, when of old constrain'd to roam
+The earth, an exile from his heav'nly home,
+Enter'd, no willing guest, Admetus'8 door,
+Though Hercules had enter'd there before.
+But gentle Chiron's9 cave was near, a scene
+Of rural peace, clothed with perpetual green,
+And thither, oft as respite he requir'd
+From rustic clamours loud, the God retir'd.
+There, many a time, on Peneus' bank reclin'd
+At some oak's root, with ivy thick entwin'd,        70
+Won by his hospitable friend's desire
+He sooth'd his pains of exile with the lyre.
+Then shook the hills, then trembled Peneus' shore,
+Nor Oeta10 felt his load of forests more,
+The upland elms descended to the plain,11
+And soften'd lynxes wonder'd at the strain.
+    Well may we think, O dear to all above!
+Thy birth distinguish'd by the smile of Jove,
+And that Apollo shed his kindliest pow'r,
+And Maia's son,12 on that propitious hour,          80
+Since only minds so born can comprehend
+A poet's worth, or yield that worth a friend.
+Hence, on thy yet unfaded cheek appears
+The ling'ring freshness of thy greener years,
+Hence, in thy front, and features, we admire
+Nature unwither'd, and a mind entire.
+Oh might so true a friend to me belong,
+So skill'd to grace the votaries of song,
+Should I recall hereafter into rhyme
+The kings, and heroes of my native clime,           90
+Arthur the chief, who even now prepares,
+In subterraneous being, future wars,
+With all his martial Knights, to be restor'd
+Each to his seat around the fed'ral board,
+And Oh, if spirit fail me not, disperse
+Our Saxon plund'rers in triumphant verse!
+Then, after all, when, with the Past content,
+A life I finish, not in silence spent,
+Should he, kind mourner, o'er my deathbed bend
+I shall but need to say--"Be yet my friend!"       100
+He, faithful to my dust, with kind concern
+Shal1 place it gently in a modest urn;
+He too, perhaps, shall bid the marble breathe
+To honour me, and with the graceful wreath13
+Or of Parnassus or the Paphian isle
+Shall bind my brows--but I shall rest the while.
+Then also, if the fruits of Faith endure,
+And Virtue's promis'd recompense be sure,
+Borne to those seats, to which the blest aspire
+By purity of soul, and virtuous fire,
+These rites, as Fate permits, I shall survey
+With eyes illumin'd by celestial day,              110
+And, ev'ry cloud from my pure spirit driv'n,
+Joy in the bright beatitude of Heav'n!
+
+1 Milton's Account of Manso, translated.
+
+2 The Muses.
+
+3 Cornelius Gallus, Roman eleist. See Virgil (Eclogue vi,
+64-66, and x).
+
+Maecenas. Roman patron of letters. See Horace (Odes, i,1),
+
+4 Author of the Adone, a poem on the story of Venus and Adonis.
+
+5 Herodotus, to whom The Life of Homer is attributed.
+
+6 Chaucer, called Tityrus in Spencer's Pastorals.
+
+7 The maidens who brought offerings to Delos. Loxo, descended from the ancient
+British hero, Corineus; Upis, a prophetess; and
+Hecaerge.
+
+8 Admetus was King of Thessaly. Apollo was for a year his
+shepherd.
+
+9 See Homer (Il. xi, 830-831) and Ovid (Met. ii, 630).
+
+10 Mt. Oeta, between Thessaly and Aetolia.
+
+11 See Ovid (Met. x, 87-I06), where the trees crowd the hear
+Orpheus sing.
+
+12 Hermes.
+
+13 The wreaths of victors, made from the laurel, which grew on Mt.
+Parnassus, sacred to the Muses, and the myrtle, sacred to Venus,
+a shrine to whom was at Paphos in Cyprus.
+
+
+                     The Death of Damon.
+
+                        The Argument.
+
+   Thyrsis and Damon, shepherds and neighbours, had always pursued
+the same studies, and had, from their earliest days, been united
+in the closest friendship. Thyrsis, while traveling for improve-
+ment, received intelligence of the death of Damon, and, after a
+time, returning and finding it true, deplores himself and his
+solitary condition, in this poem.
+   By Damon is to be understood Charles Diodati, connected with
+the Italian city of Lucca by his Father's side, in other respects
+an Englishman; a youth of uncommon genius, erudition, and virtue.
+
+Ye Nymphs of Himera1 (for ye have shed
+Erewhile for Daphnis2 and for Hylas dead,
+And over Bion's long-lamented bier,
+The fruitless meed of many a sacred tear)
+Now, through the villas laved by Thames rehearse
+The woes of Thyrsis in Sicilian verse,
+What sighs he heav'd, and how with groans profound
+He made the woods and hollow rocks resound
+Young Damon dead; nor even ceased to pour
+His lonely sorrows at the midnight hour.                   10
+The green wheat twice had nodded in the ear,
+And golden harvest twice enrich'd the year,
+Since Damon's lips had gasp'd for vital air
+The last, last time, nor Thyrsis yet was there;
+For he, enamour'd of the Muse, remain'd
+In Tuscan Fiorenza long detain'd,
+But, stored at length with all he wish'd to learn,
+For his flock's sake now hasted to return,
+And when the shepherd had resumed his seat
+At the elm's root within his old retreat,           20
+Then 'twas his lot, then, all his loss to know,
+And, from his burthen'd heart, he vented thus his woe.
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.
+Alas! what Deities shall I suppose
+In heav'n or earth concern'd for human woes,
+Since, Oh my Damon! their severe decree
+So soon condemns me to regret of Thee!
+Depart'st thou thus, thy virtues unrepaid
+With fame and honour, like a vulgar shade?          30
+Let him forbid it, whose bright rod controls,
+And sep'rates sordid from illustrious souls,
+Drive far the rabble, and to Thee assign
+A happier lot with spirits worthy thine!
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.
+Whate'er befall, unless by cruel chance
+The wolf first give me a forbidding glance,
+Thou shalt not moulder undeplor'd, but long
+Thy praise shall dwell on ev'ry shepherd's tongue;  40
+To Daphnis first they shall delight to pay,
+And, after Him, to thee the votive lay,
+While Pales3 shall the flocks and pastures love,
+Or Faunus to frequent the field or grove,
+At least if antient piety and truth
+With all the learned labours of thy youth
+May serve thee aught, or to have left behind
+A sorrowing friend, and of the tuneful kind.
+Go, seek your home, my lambs, my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.           50
+Yes, Damon! such thy sure reward shall be,
+But ah, what doom awaits unhappy me?
+Who, now, my pains and perils shall divide,
+As thou wast wont, for ever at my side,
+Both when the rugged frost annoy'd our feet,
+And when the herbage all was parch'd with heat,
+Whether the grim wolf's ravage to prevent
+Or the huge lion's, arm'd with darts we went?
+Whose converse, now, shall calm my stormy day,
+With charming song who, now, beguile my way?        60
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.
+In whom shall I confide? Whose counsel find
+A balmy med'cine for my troubled mind?
+Or whose discourse with innocent delight
+Shall fill me now, and cheat the wint'ry night,
+While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear,
+And black'ning chesnuts start and crackle there,
+While storms abroad the dreary meadows whelm,
+And the wind thunders thro' the neighb'ring elm?    70
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.
+Or who, when summer suns their summit reach,
+And Pan sleeps hidden by the shelt'ring beech,
+When shepherds disappear, Nymphs seek the sedge,
+And the stretch'd rustic snores beneath the hedge,
+Who then shall render me thy pleasant vein
+Of Attic wit, thy jests, thy smiles again?
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.           80
+Where glens and vales are thickest overgrown
+With tangled boughs, I wander now alone
+Till night descend, while blust'ring wind and show'r
+Beat on my temples through the shatter'd bow'r.
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.
+Alas, what rampant weeds now shame my fields,
+And what a mildew'd crop the furrow yields!
+My rambling vines unwedded to the trees
+Bear shrivel'd grapes, my myrtles fail to please,   90
+Nor please me more my flocks; they, slighted, turn
+Their unavailing looks on me, and mourn.
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.
+Aegon invites me to the hazel grove,
+Amyntas, on the river's bank to rove,
+And young Alphesiboeus to a seat
+Where branching elms exclude the midday heat--
+"Here fountains spring-here mossy hillocks rise--"
+"Here Zephyr whispers and the stream replies--"    100
+Thus each persuades, but deaf to ev'ry call
+I gain the thickets, and escape them all.
+Go, seek your home, my lambs; my thoughts are due
+To other cares than those of feeding you.
+Then Mopsus said (the same who reads so well
+The voice of birds, and what the stars foretell,
+For He by chance had noticed my return)
+What means thy sullen mood, this deep concern?
+Ah Thyrsis! thou art either crazed with love,
+Or some sinister influence from above,             110
+Dull Saturn's influence oft the shepherd rue,
+His leaden shaft oblique has pierced thee through.
+Go, go, my lambs, unpastur'd as ye are,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+The Nymphs amazed my melancholy see,
+And, Thyrsis! cry--what will become of thee?
+What would'st thou, Thyrsis? such should not appear
+The brow of youth, stern, gloomy, and severe,
+Brisk youth should laugh and love--ah shun the fate
+Of those twice wretched mopes who love too late!   120
+Go, go, my lambs, unpastur'd as ye are,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+Aegle with Hyas came, to sooth my pain,
+And Baucis' daughter, Dryope the vain,4
+Fair Dryope, for voice and finger neat
+Known far and near, and for her self-conceit,
+Came Chloris too, whose cottage on the lands
+That skirt the Idumanian current stands;
+But all in vain they came, and but to see
+Kind words and comfortable lost on me.             130
+Go, go, my lambs, unpastur'd as ye are,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+Ah blest indiff'rence of the playful herd,
+None by his fellow chosen or preferr'd!
+No bonds of amity the flocks enthrall,
+But each associates and is pleased with all;
+So graze the dappled deer in num'rous droves,
+And all his kind alike the zebra loves'
+The same law governs where the billows roar
+And Proteus' shoals o'erspread the desert shore;   140
+The sparrow, meanest of the feather'd race,
+His fit companion finds in ev'ry place,
+With whom he picks the grain that suits him best,
+Flits here and there, and late returns to rest,
+And whom if chance the falcon make his prey,
+Or Hedger with his well-aim'd arrow slay,
+For no such loss the gay survivor grieves'
+New love he seeks, and new delight receives.
+We only, an obdurate kind, rejoice,
+Scorning all others, in a single choice,           150
+We scarce in thousands meet one kindred mind,
+And if the long-sought good at last we find,
+When least we fear it, Death our treasure steals,
+And gives our heart a wound that nothing heals.
+Go, go, my lambs, unpastur'd as ye are,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+Ah, what delusion lured me from my flocks,
+To traverse Alpine snows, and rugged rocks!
+What need so great had I to visit Rome
+Now sunk in ruins, and herself a tomb?             160
+Or, had she flourish'd still as when, of old
+For her sake Tityrus forsook his fold,
+What need so great had I t'incur a pause
+Of thy sweet intercourse for such a cause,
+For such a cause to place the roaring sea,
+Rocks, mountains, woods, between my friend and me?
+Else, I had grasp'd thy feeble hand, composed
+Thy decent limbs, thy drooping eye-lids closed,
+And, at the last, had said--Farewell--Ascend--
+Nor even in the skies forget thy friend.           170
+Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+Although well-pleas'd, ye tuneful Tuscan swains!
+My mind the mem'ry of your worth retains,
+Yet not your worth can teach me less to mourn
+My Damon lost--He too was Tuscan born,
+Born in your Lucca, city of renown,
+And Wit possess'd and Genius like your own.
+Oh how elate was I, when, stretch'd beside
+The murm'ring course of Arno's breezy tide,        180
+Beneath the poplar-grove I pass'd my hours,
+Now cropping myrtles, and now vernal flow'rs,
+And hearing, as I lay at ease along,
+Your swains contending for the prize of song!
+I also dared attempt (and, as it seems
+Not much displeas'd attempting) various themes,
+For even I can presents boast from you,
+The shepherd's pipe and osier basket too,
+And Dati and Francini both have made
+My name familiar to the beechen shade,             190
+And they are learn'd, and each in ev'ry place
+Renown'd for song, and both of Lydian Race.
+Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+While bright the dewy grass with moon-beams shone,
+And I stood hurdling in my kids alone,
+How often have I said (but thou had'st found
+Ere then thy dark cold lodgment under-ground)
+Now Damon sings, or springes sets for hares,
+Or wicker-work for various use prepares!           200
+How oft, indulging Fancy, have I plann'd
+New scenes of pleasure, that I hop'd at hand,
+Call'd thee abroad as I was wont, and cried--
+What hoa, my friend--come, lay thy task aside--
+Haste, let us forth together, and beguile
+The heat beneath yon whisp'ring shades awhile,
+Or on the margin stray of Colne's5 clear flood,
+Or where Cassivelan's grey turrets stood!
+There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach
+Thy friend the name and healing pow'rs of each,    210
+From the tall blue-bell to the dwarfish weed,
+What the dry land and what the marshes breed,
+For all their kinds alike to thee are known,
+And the whole art of Galen6 is thy own.
+Ah, perish Galen's art, and wither'd be
+The useless herbs that gave not health to thee!
+Twelve evenings since, as in poetic dream
+I meditating sat some statelier theme,
+The reeds no sooner touch'd my lip, though new
+And unassay'd before, than wide they flew,         220
+Bursting their waxen bands, nor could sustain
+The deep-ton'd music of the solemn strain;
+And I am vain perhaps, but will tell
+How proud a theme I choose--ye groves farewell!
+Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+Of Brutus, Dardan Chief, my song shall be,7
+How with his barks he plough'd the British sea,
+First from Rutupia's tow'ring headland seen,
+And of his consort's reign, fair Imogen;           230
+Of Brennus and Belinus, brothers bold,8
+And of Arviragus, and how of old
+Our hardy sires th'Armorican controll'd,
+And the wife of Gorlois, who, surprised
+By Uther in her husband's form disguised,
+(Such was the force of Merlin's art) became
+Pregnant with Arthur of heroic fame.9
+These themes I now revolve--and Oh--if Fate
+Proportion to these themes my lengthen'd date,
+Adieu my shepherd's-reed--yon pine-tree bough      240
+Shall be thy future home, there dangle Thou
+Forgotten and disus'd, unless ere long
+Thou change thy Latin for a British song.
+A British?--even so--the pow'rs of Man
+Are bounded; little is the most he can,
+And it shall well suffice me, and shall be
+Fame and proud recompense enough for me,
+If Usa10 golden-hair'd my verse may learn,
+If Alain, bending o'er his chrystal urn,
+Swift-whirling Abra, Trent's o'ershadow'd stream,  250
+Thames, lovelier far than all in my esteem
+Tamar's ore-tinctur'd flood, and, after these,
+The wave-worn shores of utmost Orcades
+Go, go, my lambs, untended homeward fare,
+My thoughts are all now due to other care.
+All this I kept in leaves of laurel-rind
+Enfolded safe, and for thy view design'd,
+This--and a gift from Manso's hand beside,
+(Manso, not least his native city's pride)
+Two cups, that radiant as their giver shone,       260
+Adorn'd by sculpture with a double zone.
+The spring was graven there; here, slowly wind
+The Red-Sea shores with groves of spices lined;
+Her plumes of various hues amid the boughs
+The sacred, solitary Phoenix shows,
+And, watchful of the dawn, reverts her head
+To see Aurora11 leave her wat'ry bed.
+In other part, th'expansive vault above,
+And there too, even there, the God of love;
+With quiver arm'd he mounts, his torch displays    270
+A vivid light, his gem-tip'd arrows blaze,
+Around, his bright and fiery eyes he rolls,
+Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls
+Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high
+Sends every arrow to the lofty sky,
+Hence, forms divine, and minds immortal learn
+The pow'r of Cupid, and enamour'd burn.
+Thou also Damon (neither need I fear
+That hope delusive) thou art also there;
+For whither should simplicity like thine           280
+Retire, where else such spotless virtue shine?
+Thou dwell'st not (thought profane) in shades below,
+Nor tears suit thee--cease then my tears to flow,
+Away with grief on Damon ill-bestow'd,
+Who, pure himself, has found a pure abode,
+Has pass'd the show'ry arch, henceforth resides
+With saints and heroes, and from flowing tides
+Quaffs copious immortality and joy
+With hallow'd lips. Oh! blest without alloy,
+And now enrich'd with all that faith can claim,    290
+Look down entreated by whatever name,
+If Damon please thee most (that rural sound)
+Shall oft with ecchoes fill the groves around)
+Or if Diodatus, by which alone
+In those ethereal mansions thou art known.
+Thy blush was maiden, and thy youth the taste
+Of wedded bliss knew never, pure and chaste,
+The honours, therefore, by divine decree
+The lot of virgin worth are giv'n to thee;
+Thy brows encircled with a radiant band,           300
+And the green palm-branch waving in thy hand
+Thou immortal Nuptials shalt rejoice
+And join with seraphs thy according voice,
+Where rapture reigns, and the ecstatic lyre
+Guides the blest orgies of the blazing quire.
+
+1 A river in Sicily.
+
+2 Subject of Theocritus's Lament for Daphnis (Idyl i) in which
+Thyrsis is the mourning shepherd. Hylas was taken away by nymphs
+who admired his beauty and Bion is the subject of Moschus's
+Epitaph of Bion (Idyl iii).
+
+3 Goddess who was protector of the flocks. Faunus is god of the
+plains and hills around Rome.
+
+4 Characters in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
+
+5 A river near St. Albans. Cassivellaunus was a British chieftan
+who opposed Caesar. See Gallic War (v, xi.)
+
+6 Medicine. Diodati took medical training at Cambridge.
+
+7 Milton's planned epic opened with the Dardanian (i.e. Trojan)
+fleet, under Brutus, approaching England.
+
+8 Brennus and Belinus were kings of Brittany who, according to
+Spencer's Fairie Queen, "rasackt Greece" and conquered France
+and Germany. Arviragus led the Britons against Claudius.
+
+9 See Malory's Morte d'Arthur.
+
+10 A river in Oxford.
+
+11 Goddess of the Dawn.
+
+
+              To Mr. John Rouse,
+      Librarian of the University of Oxford,
+
+   An Ode1 on a Lost Volume of my Poems Which He
+     Desired Me to Replace that He Might Add
+ Them to My Other Works Deposited in the Library.
+
+              Strophe I
+
+ My two-fold Book! single in show
+   But double in Contents,
+ Neat, but not curiously adorn'd
+   Which in his early youth,
+ A poet gave, no lofty one in truth
+Although an earnest wooer of the Muse--
+ Say, while in cool Ausonian2 shades
+   Or British wilds he roam'd,
+ Striking by turns his native lyre,
+   By turns the Daunian lute                        10
+   And stepp'd almost in air,--
+
+              Antistrophe
+
+ Say, little book, what furtive hand
+ Thee from thy fellow books convey'd,
+ What time, at the repeated suit
+     Of my most learned Friend,
+I sent thee forth an honour'd traveller
+From our great city to the source of Thames,
+          Caerulean sire!
+Where rise the fountains and the raptures ring,
+     Of the Aonian choir,3                          20
+  Durable as yonder spheres,
+  And through the endless lapse of years
+     Secure to be admired?
+
+              Strophe II
+
+ Now what God or Demigod
+For Britain's ancient Genius mov'd
+     (If our afflicted land
+Have expiated at length the guilty sloth
+   Of her degen'rate sons)
+ Shall terminate our impious feuds,
+And discipline, with hallow'd voice, recall?        30
+   Recall the Muses too
+   Driv'n from their antient seats
+In Albion, and well-nigh from Albion's shore,
+   And with keen Phoebean shafts
+   Piercing th'unseemly birds,
+     Whose talons menace us
+Shall drive the harpy race from Helicon afar?
+
+              Antistrophe
+
+ But thou, my book, though thou hast stray'd,
+     Whether by treach'ry lost
+Or indolent neglect, thy bearer's fault,            40
+     From all thy kindred books,
+ To some dark cell or cave forlorn,
+     Where thou endur'st, perhaps,
+The chafing of some hard untutor'd hand,
+          Be comforted--
+For lo! again the splendid hope appears
+ That thou may'st yet escape
+The gulphs of Lethe, and on oary wings
+Mount to the everlasting courts of Jove,
+
+              Strophe III
+
+Since Rouse desires thee, and complains             50
+   That, though by promise his,
+ Thou yet appear'st not in thy place
+Among the literary noble stores
+          Giv'n to his care,
+But, absent, leav'st his numbers incomplete.
+ He, therefore, guardian vigilant
+     Of that unperishing wealth,
+Calls thee to the interior shrine, his charge,
+Where he intends a richer treasure far
+Than Ion kept--(Ion, Erectheus' son4                60
+Illustrious, of the fair Creusa born)--
+In the resplendent temple of his God,
+Tripods of gold and Delphic gifts divine.
+
+              Antistrophe
+
+   Haste, then, to the pleasant groves,
+     The Muses' fav'rite haunt;
+Resume thy station in Apollo's dome,
+          Dearer to him
+Than Delos, or the fork'd Parnassian hill.
+          Exulting go,
+Since now a splendid lot is also thine,             70
+And thou art sought by my propitious friend;
+     For There thou shalt be read
+     With authors of exalted note,
+The ancient glorious Lights of Greece and Rome.
+
+                 Epode
+
+Ye, then my works, no longer vain
+     And worthless deem'd by me!
+Whate'er this steril genius has produc'd
+Expect, at last, the rage of Envy spent,
+ An unmolested happy home,
+Gift of kind Hermes and my watchful friend,         80
+ Where never flippant tongue profane
+   Shall entrance find,
+And whence the coarse unletter'd multitude
+   Shall babble far remote.
+ Perhaps some future distant age
+Less tinged with prejudice and better taught
+   Shall furnish minds of pow'r
+   To judge more equally.
+ Then, malice silenced in the tomb,
+   Cooler heads and sounder hearts,                 90
+   Thanks to Rouse, if aught of praise
+I merit, shall with candour weigh the claim.
+
+
+1 This Ode consists of three strophes and the same of antistrophes,
+concluding with an epode. Although these units do not perfectly
+correspond in their number of verses or in divisions which are
+strictly parallel, nevertheless I have divided them in this
+fashion with a view  to convenience or the reader, rather than
+conformity with the ancient rules of versification. In other
+respects a poem of  this kind should, perhaps, more correctly be
+called monostrophic. The metres are in part regularly patterned
+and in part free. There are two Phaleucian verses which admit a
+spondee in the third foot, a practice often followed by Catullus
+in the second foot. [Milton's Note, translated--W.C.]
+
+1 This Ode is rendered without rhyme, that it might more
+adequately represent the original, which, as Milton himself
+informs us, is of no certain measure. It may possibly for this
+reason disappoint the reader, though it cost the writer more
+labour than the translation of any other piece in the whole
+collection.--W.C.
+
+2 Italian.
+
+3 The Muses, who dwelt on Mount Helicon in Aonia.
+
+4 See Euripides' Ion.
+
+
+
+         Paradisum Amissam, Lib. II 1
+
+Quales aerii montis de vertice nubes
+Cum surgunt, et jam Boreae tumida ora quierunt,
+Caelum hilares abdit spissa caligine vultus,
+Nimbosumque nives aut imbres cogitat aether:
+Tum si jucundo tandem sol prodeat ore,              5
+Et croceo montes et pascua lumine tingat,
+Gaudent omnia, aves mulcent concentibus agros,
+Balatuque ovium colles vallesque resultant.
+
+
+1 Translation of a simile in Paradise Lost,
+ "As when, from mountaintops, the dusky clouds
+  Ascending, &c.--"(ii. 488)--W.C.
+
+
+
+3. TRANSLATIONS OF THE ITALIAN POEMS
+
+
+                        I
+
+Fair Lady, whose harmonious name the Rheno
+   Through all his grassy vale delights to hear,
+   Base were, indeed, the wretch, who could forbear
+   To love a spirit elegant as thine,
+That manifests a sweetness all divine,               5
+   Nor knows a thousand winning acts to spare,
+   And graces, which Love's bow and arrows are,
+   Temp'ring thy virtues to a softer shine.
+When gracefully thou speak'st, or singest gay
+   Such strains as might the senseless forest move, 10
+   Ah then--turn each his eyes and ears away,
+Who feels himself unworthy of thy love!
+   Grace can alone preserve him, e'er the dart
+   Of fond desire yet reach his inmost heart.
+
+                        II
+
+As on a hill-top rude, when closing day
+   Imbrowns the scene, some past'ral maiden fair
+   Waters a lovely foreign plant with care,
+   That scarcely can its tender bud display
+Borne from its native genial airs away,              5
+   So, on my tongue these accents new and rare
+   Are flow'rs exotic, which Love waters there,
+   While thus, o sweetly scornful! I essay
+Thy praise in verse to British ears unknown,
+   And Thames exchange for Arno's fair domain;      10
+   So Love has will'd, and oftimes Love has shown
+That what He wills he never wills in vain.
+   Oh that this hard and steril breast might be
+   To Him who plants from heav'n, a soil as free.
+
+                        III
+                      Canzone.
+
+They mock my toil--the nymphs and am'rous swains--
+And whence this fond attempt to write, they cry,
+Love-songs in language that thou little know'st?
+How dar'st thou risque to sing these foreign strains?
+Say truly. Find'st not oft thy purpose cross'd,      5
+And that thy fairest flow'rs, Here, fade and die?
+Then with pretence of admiration high--
+Thee other shores expect, and other tides,
+Rivers on whose grassy sides
+Her deathless laurel-leaf with which to bind        10
+Thy flowing locks, already Fame provides;
+Why then this burthen, better far declin'd?
+   Speak, Canzone! for me.--The Fair One said who guides
+My willing heart, and all my Fancy's flights,
+"This is the language in which Love delights."      15
+
+                        IV
+               To Charles Diodati.
+
+Charles--and I say it wond'ring--thou must know
+   That I who once assum'd a scornful air,
+   And scoff'd at love, am fallen in his snare
+   (Full many an upright man has fallen so)
+Yet think me not thus dazzled by the flow            5
+   Of golden locks, or damask cheek; more rare
+   The heart-felt beauties of my foreign fair;
+   A mien majestic, with dark brows, that show
+The tranquil lustre of a lofty mind;
+   Words exquisite, of idioms more than one,        10
+   And song, whose fascinating pow'r might bind,
+And from her sphere draw down the lab'ring Moon,
+   With such fire-darting eyes, that should I fill
+   My ears with wax, she would enchant me still.
+
+                        V.
+
+Lady! It cannot be, but that thine eyes
+   Must be my sun, such radiance they display
+   And strike me ev'n as Phoebus him, whose way
+   Through torrid Libya's sandy desert lies.
+Meantime, on that side steamy vapours rise           5
+   Where most I suffer. Of what kind are they,
+   New as to me they are, I cannot say,
+   But deem them, in the Lover's language--sighs.
+Some, though with pain, my bosom close conceals,
+   Which, if in part escaping thence, they tend     10
+   To soften thine, they coldness soon congeals.
+While others to my tearful eyes ascend,
+   Whence my sad nights in show'rs are ever drown'd,
+   'Till my Aurora comes, her brow with roses bound.
+
+                        VI.1
+
+Enamour'd, artless, young, on foreign ground,
+   Uncertain whither from myself to fly,
+   To thee, dear Lady, with an humble sigh
+   Let me devote my heart, which I have found
+By certain proofs not few, intrepid, sound,          5
+   Good, and addicted to conceptions high:
+   When tempests shake the world, and fire the sky,
+   It rests in adamant self-wrapt around,
+As safe from envy, and from outrage rude,
+   From hopes and fears, that vulgar minds abuse,   10
+   As fond of genius, and fix'd fortitude,
+Of the resounding lyre, and every Muse.
+   Weak you will find it in one only part,
+   Now pierc'd by Love's immedicable dart.
+
+1 It has ever been thought difficult for an author to speak
+gracefully of himself, especially in commendation; but Milton,
+who was gifted with powers to overcome difficulties, of every
+kind, is eminently happy in this particular. He has spoken
+frequently of himself both in verse and prose, and he continually
+shows that he thought highly of his own endowments; but if he
+praises himself, he does it with that dignified frankness and
+simplicity of conscious truth, which renders even egotism
+respectable and delightful: whether he describes the fervent and
+tender emotions of his juvenile fancy, or delineates his situation
+in the decline of life, when he had to struggle with calamity
+and peril, the more insight he affords us into his own sentiments
+and feelings, the more reason we find both to love, and revere
+him.--W.C.
+
+
+
+
+
+Appendix: Cowper's translation of Andrew Marvell's "To Christina,
+          Queen of Sweden," &c.
+
+To Christina, Queen of Sweden, with Cromwell's Picture.1
+
+Christina, maiden of heroic mien!
+Star of the North! of northern stars the queen!
+Behold, what wrinkles I have earn'd, and how
+The iron cask still chafes my vet'ran brow,
+While following fate's dark footsteps, I fulfill
+The dictates of a hardy people's will.
+But soften'd, in thy sight, my looks appear,
+Not to all Queens or Kings alike severe.
+
+1 Written on Cromwell's behalf, this poem was originally attr. to
+Milton, hence Cowper's inclusion of it. It has since been
+recognized as the work of Marvell.
+
+
+Appendix: Poems from the Latin Prose Works. Translated by various
+          hands.
+
+     Epigram From "Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio" (I650).
+     Translated by Joseph Washington (I692).
+
+     On Salmasius's "Hundreda."
+
+Who taught Salmasius, the French chatt'ring Pye,1
+To try at English, and "Hundreda"2 cry?
+The starving Rascal, flush'd with just a Hundred
+English Jacobusses,3 "Hundreda" blunder'd.
+An outlaw'd King's last stock.--a hundred more,
+Would make him pimp for th'Antichristian Whore;4
+And in Rome's praise employ his poison'd Breath,
+Who once threatn'd to stink the Pope to death.
+
+1 i.e. The Magpie.
+2 Salmasius attempted to do certain English words in his Latin.
+  a "Hundred" was a division of an English shire.
+3 The Jacobus was a gold coin named for James I.
+4 Salmasius attacked the Pope in "De Primatu Papae" in I645.
+
+     Epigrams from the "Defensio Secunda" (I654).
+     Translated by Robert Fellowes (I878?).
+
+     On Salmasius.
+
+Rejoice, ye herrings, and ye ocean fry,
+Who, in cold winter, shiver in the sea;
+The knight, Salmasius,1 pitying your hard lot,
+Bounteous intends your nakedness to clothe,
+And, lavish of his paper, is preparing
+Chartaceous jackets to invest you all,
+Jackets resplendent with his arms and fame,
+Exultingly parade the fishy mart,
+And sing his praise with checquered, livery,
+That well might serve to grace the letter'd store
+Of those who pick their noses and ne'er read.
+
+1 A play on "Salmon."
+
+    [Lines Concerning Alexander More.]1
+
+O Pontia, teeming with More's Gallic seed,
+You have been Mor'd2 enough, and no More need.
+
+1 Wrongly attr. to Milton, who prefaced these lines with,
+"Ingenii, hoc distochon" [Some ingenious person wrote this
+distich]. Milton wrongly believed More to be the author of a libel
+against him.
+
+2 It is impossible to give a literally exact rendering of this. I
+have played upon the name as well as I could in English.--R.F.
+
+Appendix: Translation of a Letter to Thomas Young,
+          Translated by Robert Fellows (I878?).
+
+          To My Tutor, Thomas Young.
+
+Though I had determined, my excellent tutor, to write you an
+epistle in verse, yet I could not satisfy myself without
+sending also another in prose, for the emotions of my
+gratitude, which your services so justly inspire, are too
+expansive and too warm to be expressed in the confined limits
+of poetical metre; they demand the unconstrained freedom of
+prose, or rather the exuberant richness of Asiatic
+phraseology: thought it would far exceed my power accurately
+to describe how much I am obliged to you, even if I could
+drain dry all the sources of eloquence, or exhaust all the
+topics of discourse which Aristotle or the famed Parisian
+logician has collected. You complain with truth that my
+letters have been very few and very short; but I do not
+grieve at the omission of so pleasurable a duty, so much as I
+rejoice at having such a place in your regard as makes you
+anxious often to hear from me. I beseech you not to take it
+amiss, that I have not now written to you for more than three
+years; but with you usual benignity to impute it rather to
+circumstances than to inclination. For Heaven knows that I
+regard you as a parent, that I have always treated you with
+the utmost respect, and that I was unwilling to tease you
+with my compositions. And I was anxious that if my letters
+had nothing else to recommend them, they might be recommended
+by their rarity. And lastly, since the ardour of my regard
+makes me imagine that you are always present, that I hear
+your voice and contemplate your looks; and as thus... I charm
+away my grief by the illusion of your presence, I was afraid
+when I wrote to you the idea of your distant separation
+should forcibly rush upon my mind; and that the pain of your
+absence, which was almost soothed into quiescence, should
+revive and disperse the pleasurable dream. I long since
+received your desirable present of the Hebrew Bible. I wrote
+this at my lodgings in the city, not, as usual, surrounded by
+my books. If, therefore, there be anything in this letter
+which either fails to give pleasure, or which frustrates
+expectation, it shall be compensated by a more elaborate
+composition as soon as I return to the dwelling of the muses.1
+          --London, March 26, I625.
+
+1 i.e. Cambridge.
+
+
+Appendix: Translations of the Italian Poems
+          By George MacDonald (I876).
+
+                        I.
+
+O lady fair, whose honoured name doth grace
+   Green vale and noble ford of Rheno's stream--
+   Of all worth void the man I surely deem
+   Whom thy fair soul enamoureth not apace,
+When softly self-revealed in outer space             5
+   By actions sweet with which thy will doth teem,
+   And gifts--Love's bow and shafts in their esteem
+   Who tend the flowers one day shall crown thy race.
+When thou dost lightsome talk or gladsome sing,--
+   A power to draw the hill-trees, rooted hard--     10
+   The doors of eyes and ears let that man keep,
+Who knows himself unworthy thy regard.
+   Grace from above alone him help can bring,
+   That passion in his heart strike not too deep.
+
+                        II.
+
+As in the twilight brown, on hillside bare,
+   Useth to go the little shepherd maid,
+   Watering some strange fair plant, poorly displaced,
+   Not thriving in unwonted soil and air,
+Far from its native springtime's genial care;        5
+   So on my ready tongue hath Love assayed
+   Of a strange speech to wake new flower and blade,
+   While I of thee, in scorn so debonair,
+Sing songs whose sense is to my people lost-
+   Yield the fair Thames, and the fair Arno gain.    10
+   Love willed it so, and I, at others' cost,
+Already knew Love never willed in vain.
+   Ill would slow mind, hard heart reward the toil
+   Of him who plants from heaven so good a soil,
+
+                        III.
+                      Canzone.
+
+Ladies, and youths that in their favour bask,
+With mocking smiles come round me: Prithee, why,
+Why dost thou with an unknown language cope,
+Love-riming? Whence the courage for the task?
+Tell us--so never frustrate be thy hope,             5
+And the best thoughts still to thy thinking fly!
+Thus mocking they: Thee other streams, they cry,
+Thee other shores, another sea demands,
+Upon whose verdant strands
+Are budding, every moment, for thy hair,             10
+Immortal guerdon, leaves that will not die;
+An over-burden on thy back why bear?--
+   Song,1 I will tell thee; thou for me reply:
+My lady saith-and her word is my heart--
+This is Love's mother-tongue, and fits his part.     15
+
+1 Ital. "Canzone."
+
+                        IV.
+               To Charles Diodati.
+
+Diodati--and I muse to tell the tale--
+   This stubborn I, that Love was wont despise,
+   And made a laughter of his snares, unwise,
+   Am fallen, where honest feet will sometimes fail.
+Not golden tresses, not a cheek vermeil,             5
+   Bewitched me thus; but, in a new-world guise,
+   A beauty that the heart beatifies;
+   A mien where high-souled modesty I hail;
+Eyes softly splendent with a darkness dear;
+   A speech that more than one tongue vassal hath;   10
+   A voice that in the middle hemisphere
+Might make the tired moon wander from her path;
+   While from her eyes such potent flashes shoot,
+   That to stop hard my ears would little boot.
+
+                        V.
+
+Truly,1 my lady sweet, your blessed eyes--
+   It cannot be but that they are my sun;
+   As strong they smite me as he smites upon
+   The man whose way o'er Libyan desert lies,
+The while a vapour hot doth me surprise,             5
+   From that side springing where my pain doth won;
+   Perchance accustomed lovers--I am none,
+   And know not--in their speech call such things sighs;
+A part shut in, itself, sore vexed, conceals,
+   And shakes my bosom; part, undisciplined,         10
+   Breaks forth, and all about in ice congeals;
+But that which to mine eyes the way doth find,
+   Makes all my nights in silent showers abound,
+   Until my Dawn2 returns, with roses crowned.
+
+1 Correcting MacDonald's "Certes" (Ital. "Per Certo").
+2 [Ital.] "Alba"-I suspect a hint at the lady's name.-G.M.
+
+                        VI.
+
+A modest youth, in love a simpleton,
+   When to escape myself I seek and shift,
+   Lady, I of my heart the humble gift
+   Vow unto thee. In trials many a one,
+True, brave, it has been, firm to things begun,      5
+   By gracious, prudent, worthy thoughts uplift.
+   When roars the great world, in the thunder-rift,
+   Its own self, armour adamant, it will don,
+From chance and envy as securely barred,
+   From hopes and fears that still the crowd abuse,  10
+   As inward gifts and high worth coveting,
+And the resounding lyre, and every Muse.
+   There only wilt thou find it not so hard
+   Where Love hath fixed his ever cureless sting.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, POEMATA (WILLIAM COWPER, TRANS.) ***
+
+This file should be named 6929.txt or 6929.zip
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+https://gutenberg.org or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
+
+Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+