5 This night, and more for the wonder, Call'd out by the clap of the thunder. Edmund aller 1605-1687 ON A GIRDLE (From Poems, 1645) That which her slender waist confin'd, It was my heaven's extremest sphere, A narrow compass, and yet there 10 Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair: Give me but what this riband bound, Take all the rest the sun goes round. SONG (From the same) Go, lovely Rose, Tell her that wastes her time and me, When I resemble her to thee, 5 How sweet and fair she seems to be. Tell her that's young, And shuns to have her graces spied, In deserts where no men abide, 10 Thou must have uncommended died. Small is the worth Of beauty from the light retired; Suffer herself to be desired, 15 And not blush so to be admired. Then die, that she The common fate of all things rare How small a part of time they share, ON THE FOREGOING DIVINE POEMS (1686 ?) When we for age could neither read nor write, The subject made us able to indite. The soul, with nobler resolutions deckt, The body stooping, does herself erect: 5 No mortal parts are requisite to raise Her, that unbody'd can her Maker praise. The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er: So, calm are we, when passions are no more: For, then we know how vain it was to boast 10 Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost. Clouds of affection from our younger eyes Conceal that emptiness, which age decries. The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light, thro' chinks that time has made: 15 Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become, 10 JOHN MILTON John Milton 1608-1674 L'ALLEGRO (1634) Hence, loathed Melancholy, Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights 5 Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night-raven sings; There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks, In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. 20 As he met her once a-Maying, There, on beds of violets blue, And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, 25 Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee- Quips and cranks and wanton wiles, 30 And love to live in dimple sleek; On the light fantastic toe; 35 And in thy right hand lead with thee To live with her, and live with thee, 40 In unreprovèd pleasures free; To hear the lark begin his flight, While the cock, with lively din, 50 Scatters the rear of darkness thin; And to the stack, or the barn-door, Stoutly struts his dames before: Oft listening how the hounds and horn Through the high wood echoing shrill: 60 Where the great Sun begins his state Under the hawthorn in the dale. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 70 Whilst the landskip round it measures: Russet lawns, and fallows gray, Where the nibbling flocks do stray; 35 Of herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses; 90 To the tanned haycock in the mead. 95 To many a youth and many a maid |