Then down in peace and innocence he lay, Which still in water sets at night, Unsullied with his journey of the day. Wondrous young man! why wert thou made so good, Maliciously seiz'd on that breath Where life, spirit, pleasure, always us'd to dwell. But happy thou, ta'en from this frantic age, See'st not a soul cloth'd with more light than thine. And, if the glorious saints cease not to know Their wretched friends who fight with life below, Thy flame to me does still the same abide, Only more pure and rarefy'd. There, whilst immortal hymns thou dost rehearse, Thou dost with holy pity see Our dull and earthly poesy, Where grief and misery can be join'd with verse. IN THE COMPLAINT. a deep vision's intellectual scene, Beneath a bower for sorrow made, Th' uncomfortable shade Of the black yew's unlucky green, Mixt with the mourning willow's careful grey, And lo! a Muse appear'd to 's closed sight, That art can never imitate; And with loose pride it wanton'd in the air. A crown was on her head, and wings were on her feet. She touch'd him with her harp, and rais'd him from the ground; The shaken strings melodiously resound. "Art thou return'd at last," said she, "To this forsaken place and me? "Thou prodigal! who didst so loosely waste "Of all thy youthful years the good estate; "Art thou return'd here, to repent too late, "And gather husks of learning up at last, "Now the rich harvest-time of life is past, "And winter marches on so fast? "But, when I meant t' adopt thee for my son, "And did as learn'd a portion assign, "As ever any of the mighty Nine "Had to their dearest children done; "When I resolv'd t'exalt thy' anointed name, "Among the spiritual lords of peaceful fame; "Thou changeling! thou, bewitch'd with noise and "show "Wouldst into courts and cities from me go ; "Wouldst see the world abroad, and have a share "In all the follies and the tumults there: "Thou wouldst, forsooth, be something in a state, "And business thou wouldst find, and wouldst create: "Business! the frivolous pretence "Of human lusts, to shake off innocence; "Business the grave impertinence; "Business! the thing which I of all things hate; "Business! the contradiction of thy fate. Go, renegado! cast up thy account, "And see to what amount "Thy foolish gains by quitting me : "The sale of Knowledge, Fame, and Liberty, "The fruits of thy unlearn'd apostacy. "Thou thought'st, if once the public storm were past, "All thy remaining life should sun-shine be: "Behold! the public storm is spent at last, "The sovereign's tost at sea no more, "And thou, with all the noble company, "Art got at last to shore. "But, whilst thy fellow-voyagers I see "All march'd up to possess the promis'd land, "Thou still alone, alas! dost gaping stand "Upon the naked beach, upon the barren sand! "As a fair morning of the blessed spring, "After a tedious stormy night, "Such was the glorious entry of our king; "One of old Gideon's miracles was shown; "The fruitful seed of heaven did brooding lie, "When God to his own people said "The men whom through long wanderings he had "led) "That he would give them ev'n a heaven of brass: "They look'd up to that heaven in vain, "That bounteous heaven, which God did not "restrain Upon the most unjust to shine and rain. "The Rachel, for which twice seven years and "more "Thou didst with faith and labour serve, "And didst (if faith and labour can) deserve, "Though she contracted was to thee, "Given to another, who had store "Of fairer and of richer wives before, "And not a Leah left, thy recompence to be! "Go on twice seven years more thy fortune try; "Twice seven years more God in his bounty may "Give thee, to fling away "Into the court's deceitful lottery: "But think how likely 't is that thou, "With the dull work of thy unwieldy plough, "Shouldst in a hard and barren season thrive, "Should even able be to live; "Thou, to whose share so little bread did fall, "In the miraculous year when manna rain'd on all." Thus spake the Muse, and spake it with a smile, And to her thus, raising his thoughtful head, "Ah, wanton foe! dost thou upbraid "The hills which thou thyself hast made ?"When in the cradle innocent I lay, "Thou, wicked spirit! stolest me away, "And my abused soul didst bear "Into thy new-found worlds, I know not where, "Thy golden Indies in the air; "And ever since I strive in vain "My ravish'd freedom to regain ; "Still I rebel, still thou dost reign; "Lo! still in verse against thee I complain. "There is a sort of stubborn weeds, "Which, if the earth but once, it ever, breeds; "No wholesome, herb can near them thrive, "The foolish sports I did on thee bestow, "When my new mind had no infusion known, "Thou gav'st so deep a tincture of thine own, "That ever since I vainly try "To wash away th' inherent dye : Long work perhaps may spoil thy colours quite, "But never will reduce the native white: "To all the ports of honour and of gain "I often steer my course in vain ; "Thy gale comes cross, and drives me back again.. "Thou slacken'st all my nerves of industry, "By making them so oft to be "The tinkling strings of thy loose minstrelsy. "Do from the world retire. "This was my error, this my gross mistake, "Myself a demi-votary to make. "Thus, with Sapphira and her husband's fate. (A fault which I, like them, am taught too late), "For all that I gave up I nothing gain, "And perish for the part which I retain. "Teach me not then, O thou fallacious Muse! "The court, and better king, t'accuse: "The heaven under which I live is fair, "The fertile soil will a full harvest bear : "Thine, thine is all the barrenness; if thou "Mak'st me sit still and sing, when I should plough. "When I but think how many a tedious year "Our patient sovereign did attend "His long misfortunes' fatal end; "How cheerfully, and how exempt from fear, ་་ "On the Great Sovereign's will he did depend; |