If any sparkles than the rest more bright; When in mid-air the golden trump shall sound, The judging God shall close the book of fate; For those who wake and those who sleep: THREE CONTEMPORARY SONGS I. THE RETREAT HAPPY those early days, when I Could see a glimpse of His bright face; 1 The rising of the constellation of the Pleiades was looked upon by the ancients as an indication of safe navigation. When on some gilded cloud or flower Before I taught my tongue to wound But felt through all this fleshly dress O how I long to travel back, And tread again that ancient track! In that same state I came, return. HENRY VAUGHAN II. A SUPPLICATION AWAKE, awake, my lyre! And tell thy silent master's humble tale Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire: Though so exalted she And I so lowly be, Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony. Hark! how the strings awake: And, though the moving hand approach not near, A kind of numerous trembling make. Now all thy forces try; Now all thy charms apply; Revenge upon her ear the conquests of her eye. Weak lyre! thy virtue sure And she to wound, but not to cure. My passion to remove ; Physic to other ills, thou 'rt nourishment to love. Sleep, sleep again, my lyre! Nor gentle thoughts in her inspire; All thy vain mirth lay by, Bid thy strings silent lie, Sleep, sleep again, my lyre, and let thy master die. ABRAHAM COWLEY III. SONG OF THE EMIGRANTS IN BERMUDA WHERE the remote Bermudas ride "What should we do but sing His praise That led us through the watery maze, Where He the huge sea monsters wracks, And yet far kinder than our own? He lands us on a grassy stage, Safe from the storm's and prelate's rage : He gave us this eternal spring Thus sung they in the English boat ANDREW MARVELL Joseph Hall, 1574-1656, Bishop of Norwich; theologian; author of "Divine Meditations." John Selden, 1584-1654, politician and antiquarian; his best thought is embodied in his "Table Talk." Izaak Walton, 1593-1683, left several brief biographies, and "The Complete Angler." Sir William Davenant, 1605-1668, poet, controversialist and dramatist; his best-known poem is "Gondibert." Sir Thomas Browne, 1605-1682, physician, and theologian; author of "Essays on Vulgar Errors" and other works. Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661, English clergyman; his more important works are "Church History," and "The Worthies of England and Wales." Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon, 1608-1674, Lord Chancellor of England; wrote "A History of the Great Rebellion." James Harrington, 1611-1677, diplomatist and political philosopher; author of "A Project for the Establishment of a Republic," "Oceana," and other works. |