And now that grave aspect)hath deign'd to shrink Into this less appearance If you think
Tis but a dead face Art doth here bequeath, Look on the following leaves, and see him breathe.
Upon the Frontispiece of Mr. Isaacson's Chronology.
Let hoary Time's vast bowels be the grave To what his bowels' birth and being gave; Let Nature die, and (Phoenix-like) from death Revived Nature take a second breath;
If on Time's right hand sit fair History, -2 If, from the seed of empty Ruin, she
Can raise so fair an harvest, let her be Ne'er so far distant, yet Chronology
(Sharp-sighted as the eagle's eye, that can Out-stare the broad-beam'd Day's meridian)
Will have a perspicil to find her out,
And, through the night of error and dark doubt, Discern the dawn of Truth's eternal ray,
As when the rosy Morn buds into day.
Now that Time's empire might be amply fill'd, Babel's bold artists strive (below) to build Ruin a temple, on whose fruitful fall
History rears her pyramids, more tall
Than were th' Ægyptian (by the life these give Th' Egyptian pyramids themselves must live); On these she lifts the world, and on their base Shows the two terms and limits of Time's race: That the Creation is, the Judgment this; That the World's morning; this, her midnight is.
With a picture sent to a Friend.
I paint so ill, my piece had need to be Painted again by some good poesy.
I write so ill, my slender line is scarce
So much as th' picture of a well-limn'd verse : Yet may the love I send be true, though I Send nor true picture nor true poesy :
Both which away, I should not need to fear My love, or feign'd, or painted should appear.
OUT OF VIRGIL.
IN THE PRAISE OF THE SPRING.
All trees, all leafy groves confess the Spring Their gentlest friend; then, then the lands begin To swell with forward pride, and feed desire To generation; Heaven's Almighty Sire
Melts on the bosom of His love, and pours Himself into her lap in fruitful showers, And by a soft insinuation, mixt
With Earth's large mass, doth cherish and assist Her weak conceptions; no lone shade, but rings With chatt'ring birds' delicious murmurings. Then Venus' mild instinct (at set times) yields The herds to kindly meetings, then the fields (Quick with warm zephyr's lively breath) lay forth Their pregnant bosoms in a fragrant birth. Each body's plump and juicy, all things full Of supple moisture: no coy twig but will Trust his beloved blossom to the sun
(Grown lusty now); no vine so weak and young That fears the foul-mouth'd Auster, or those storms That the south-west wind hurries in his arms, But hastes her forward blossoms, and lays out, Freely lays out her leaves; nor do I doubt But when the world first out of chaos sprang, So smiled the Days,(and so the tenour ran Of their felicity. A spring was there,
An everlasting spring, the jolly year
Led round in his great circle; no wind's breath
As then did smell of Winter, or of Death;
When Life's sweet light first shone on beasts, and when
From their hard mother Earth sprang hardy men ;
When beasts took up their lodging in the wood,
Stars in their higher chambers: never could
The tender growth of things endure the sense Of such a change, but that the Heavens' indulgence Kindly supplies sick Nature, and doth mould A sweetly-temper'd mean, nor hot nor cold.
THE BEGINNING OF HELIODORUS.
The smiling Morn had newly waked the Day, And tipped the mountains with a tender ray : When on a hill (whose high, imperious brow Looks down, and sees the humble Nile below Lick his proud feet, and haste into the seas Through the great mouth that's named from Hercules) A band of men, rough as the arms they wore, Look'd round, first to the sea, then to the shore: The shore that shew'd them what the sea denied- Hope of a prey. There, to the mainland tied, A ship they saw, no men she had; yet prest Appear'd with other lading, for her breast Deep in the groaning waters wallowed
[Up to the third ring; o'er the shore was spread Death's purple triumph; on the blushing ground Life's late forsaken houses all lay drown'd
In their own blood's dear deluge, some new dead, Some panting in their yet warm ruins bled; While their affrighted souls, now wing'd for flight, Lent them the last flash of her glimm'ring light. Those yet fresh streams, which crawlèd everywhere, Showed that stern War had newly bathed him there.
THE DELIGHTS OF THE MUSES.
Nor did the face of this disaster show
Marks of a fight alone, but feasting too: A miserable and a monstrous feast,
Where hungry War had made himself a guest ; And, coming late, had eat up guests and all, Who proved the feast to their own funeral, etc.
OUT OF THE GREEK-CUPID'S CRIER.
Love is lost, nor can his mother
Her little fugitive discover:
She seeks, she sighs, but nowhere spies him ;
Love is lost, and thus she cries him :
Oyez ! if any happy eye
This roving wanton shall descry, Let the finder surely know
Mine is the wag; 'tis I that own The winged wanderer; and that none May think his labour vainly gone, The glad descrier shall not miss To taste the nectar of a kiss
From Venus' lips; but as for him
That brings him to me, he shall swim In riper joys more shall be his
(Venus assures him) than a kiss.
But lest your eye discerning slide,
These marks may be your judgment's guide: His skin as with a fiery blushing
High-colour'd is; his eyes still flushing
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