Thy numbers Jealousy, to nought were fix'd;
Sad proof of thy distressful state;
Of diff ring themes the veering song was mix'd:
And, now it courted Love; now, raving, call'd on Hate.
With eyes uprais'd, as one inspir'd,
Pale Melancholy sat retir'd;
And, from her wild sequester'd seat,
In notes, by distance made more sweet,
Pour'd through the inellow horn her pensive soul,
And dashing soft from rocks around,
Bubbling runnels join'd the sound;
Through glades and glooms, the mingled measure stole,
Or o'er some haunted streams with fond delay,
(Round an holy calm diffusing,
Love of peace, and lonely musing)
In hollow murmurs died awav.
But, O. how alter'd was its sprightlier tone!
When Cheerfulness. a nymph of healthiest hue,
Her bow across her shoulder flung,
Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew,
Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,
The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known; The oak erown'd Sisters, and their chaste ey'd Queen. Satyrs and sylvan Boys were seen, Peeping from forth their alleys green; Brown exercise rejoic'd to hear;
And Sport leap'd up and seiz'd his beechen spear:
Last came Joy's extatic trial,
He, with viny crown advancing,
First to the lively pipe his hand address'd-
But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol;
Whose sweet entrancing voice he lov'd the best.
They would have thought, who heard the stram,
They saw in Tempe's vale, her native maids,
Amidst the festal sounding shades,
To some unwearied minstrel dancing:
While as his faving fingers kiss'd the strings,
Love fram'd with Mirth a gay fantastic round,
(Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound)
And he, amidst his frolic play,
As if he would the charming air repay,
Shook thousand odors from his dewy wings.
I.-Milton's Lamentation for the Loss of his Sight
HUL, holy light offspring
Or, of th'Eternal, coeternal beam! May I express thee unbiam'd? Since God is light, And never, but in unapproach'd light Dwelt from eternity-dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or hear'st thou rather, pure etherial stream, Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun, Before the heavens thou wert, and at the voice Of God, as with a mantle didst invest 'The rising world of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite. Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd In that obscure sojourn; while in my flight, Through utter, and through middle darkness borne With other notes, than, to the Orphean lyre, I sung of Chaos and eternal Night; Taught by the heavenly muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to reascend, Though hard and rare. Thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sovereign vital lamp-but thou Revisitest not these eyes, that roll in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs, Or dim suffusion veil'd. Yet not the more Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt, Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, Smit with the love of sacred song-but chief Thee, Zion, and the flowery brooks beneath, That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow, Nightly I visit-nor sometimes forget Those other two, equall'd with me in fate, So were I equall'd with them in renown, Blind Thamyris, and blind Maeonides; And Tiresias, and Phineus, prophets old: Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move Harmonious numbers-as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year, Seasons return-but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight or vernal al bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine But cloud instead, and ever during dark
Surround me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair,
Prevented with an universal blank
Of nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'd,
And wisdom, at one entrance, quite shut out.
So much the rather, thou, celestial light,
Shine inward, and the mind, through all her powers,
Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from thence,
Purge and disperse; that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.
II.-L'Allegro, or the Merry Man.-MILTON.
HENCE, loathed Melancholy :
Of Cerberus and blackest midnight born,
In Stygian cave forlorn,
'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy Find out some uncouth cell,
Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings
And the night raven sings;
There under ebon shades, and low brow'd rocks,
As ragged as thy locks
In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.
But come, thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven yclep'd Euphrosyne!
And by men, hearteasing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth,
With two Sister Graces more,
To ivy crowned Bacchus bore.
Haste thee, nymph and bring with thee
Jest and youthful jelity.
Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in n dimple sleek;
Sport, that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter, holding both his sides,
Come! and trip it as you go
On the light fantastic toe;
And, in thy right hand lead with thee,
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty
And, if I give thee honor due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free:
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing, startle the dull Night,
From his watchtower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to come in spite of sorrow
Andat my window bid good morrow.
Through the sweet briar or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine;
While the cock, with lively din,
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the stack, or the barn door
Stoutly struts his dames before;
Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn,
Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn,
From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill:
Sometime walking, not unseen,
By hedge row elms or hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate,
Where the great sun begins his state,
Rob'd in flames and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries dight,
While the ploughman, near at hand,
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whe's his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures,
Whilst the landskip round it measures;
Russet lawns and fallows gray,
Where the nibbling flocks do stray,
Mountains on whose barren breast
The lab'ring clouds do often rest,
Meadows trim, with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide,
Towers and battlements it sees,
Bosom'd high in tufted trees,
Where, perhaps, some beauty lies,
The Cynosure of neighboring eyes.
Hard by a cottage chimney smokes,
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrsis met,
Are at their savory dinner set.
Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat handed Phillis dresses;
And then in haste, her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves;
Or, if the earlier season lead,
To the tann'd haycock in the mead.
Towered cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men,
Where throngs of knights and barons bold;
In weeds of peace high triumph hold;
With store of ladies whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize.
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