All
Litanies
in this have wanted faith.
Marvell - Poems
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OF MARVELL. 113
SOUL.
None thither mounts by the degree
Of knowledge, but humility.
CHORUS.
Triumph, triumph, victorious soul !
The world has not one pleasure more :
The rest does lie beyond the pole,
And is thine everlasting store.
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114 THE POEMS
A DROP OF DEW.
(TRAjrtLATSD. )
See, how the orient ^ew.
Shed from the bosom of the mom^
Into the blowing roses,
(Yet careless of its mansion new,
For the clear region where 'twas bom,)
Round in itself incloses
And, in its little globe's extent,
Frames, as it can, its native element.
How it the purple flower does shgbt,
Scarce touching where it lies ;
But gazing back upon the skies,
Shines with a mournful light,
Like its own tear,
Because so long divided from the sphere.
Restless it rolls, and unsecure,
Trembling, lest it grow impure ;
Till the warm sun pities its pain,
And to the skies exhales it back a<;ain.
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OF MABYELL. 115
So the souly that drop, that raj,
Of the clear fountain of eternal day,
Could it within the human flower be seen,
Remembering still its former height.
Shuns the sweet leaves, and blossoms green,
And, recollecting its own light.
Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express
The greater heaven in a heaven less.
In how coy a figure wound.
Every way it turns away,
So the world excluding round,
Yet receiving in the day.
Dark beneath, but bright above.
Here disdaining, there in love.
How loose and easy hence to go ;
How girt and ready to ascend ;
Moving but on a point below.
It all about does upwards bend.
Such did the manna's sacred dew distil.
White and entire, although congealed and chill ;
Congealed on earth; but does, dissolving, run
Into the glories of the almighty sun.
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116 THE P0E3JS
THE GARDEN.
(TRANSLATED. )
How vainly men themselves amaze,
To win the palm, the oak, or bajs,
And their incessant labours see
Crowned from some single herb, or tree,
Whose short and narrow-verged shade
Does prudently their toils upbraid,
While all the flowers, and trees, do close.
To weave the garlands of repose !
Fair Quiet, have I found thee here.
And Innocence, thy sister dear?
Mistaken long, I sought you then
In busy companies of men.
Your sacred plants, if here below,
Only among the plants will grow ;
Society is all but rude
To this delicious solitude.
Ko white nor red was ever seen
So amorous as this lovely green.
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Cfit'
OP MARVKLL. 117
Fond lovers, cruel as their Dame,
Cut in these trees their mistress' name :
Little, alas I they know or heed,
How far these beauties her exceed !
Fair trees 1 where'er your barks I wound,
No name shall but your own be found.
When we have run our passion's heat,
Love hither makes his best retreat.
The godsj who mortal beauty chase,
Still in a tree did end their race ;
Apollo hunted Daphne so.
Only that she might laurel grow ;
And Pan did after Syrinx speed.
Not as a nymph, but for a reed.
'•^ What wond'rous life is this I lead !
Ripe apples drop about my head ;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine ;
The nectarine, and curious peach.
Into my hands themselves do reach ;
Stumbling on melons, as I pass,
Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure k\so,
Withdraws into its happiness ;; —
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ; —
Tet it creates, transcending these,
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118
THE POEMS
9
J
(Far other worlds, and other seas.
Annihilating all that's made
\ To a green thought in a green shade.
Here at the ^untain's sliding foot.
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root.
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide :
lliere, like a bird, it sits and sings,
Then whets and claps its silver wings,
And, till prepared for longer flight.
Waves in its plumes the various light.
Such was that happy garden-state.
While man there walked without a mate
After a place so pure and sweet, :,
What other help could yet be meet ! ^'
But 'twas beyond a mortal's share
To wander solitary there :
fTwo paradises are in one,
(To live in paradise alone.
]
i
C'^^ ^
How well the skilful gardener drew
Of flowers, and herbs, this dial new.
Where, from above, the milder sun
Does through a fragrant zodiac run,
tAnd, as it works, the industrious bee
iComputes its time as well as we !
How could such sweet and wholesome hour-%
Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers ?
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OF MAR YELL. 119
ON THE
VICTORY OBTAINED BY BLAKE,
OVER THE SPANIARDS, IN THE BAY OF SANTA
CRUZ IN THE ISLAND OF TENERIFFE, 1657.
Now does Spain's fleet her spacious wings unfold,
Leaves the new world, and hastens for the old ;
But though the wind was fair, they slowly swum,.
Freighted with acted guilt, and guilt to come ;.
For this rich load, of which so proud they are,.
Was raised by tyranny, and raised for war.
Every capacious galleon's womb was filled
With what the womb of wealthy kingdoms yield ;.
The new world's wounded entrails they had^ tore.
For wealth wherewith to wound the old once
more.
Wealth which all other's avarice might cloy,
But yet in them caused as much fear, as joy.
For now upon the main themselves they saw
That boundless empire, where you give the law ;,
Of wind's and water's rage they feaiful be,
But much more fearful are your flags to see.
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120 THE POEHS
Day, that to those who sail upon the deep,
More wished for and more welcome is than sleep,
They dreaded to behold, lest the sun*s light.
With English streamers should salute their
sight :
In thickest darkness they would choose to steer.
So that such darkness might suppress their fear ;
At length it vanishes, and fortune smiles.
For they behold the sweet Canary isles.
One of which doubtless is by nature blessed
Above both worlds, since 'tis above the rest
For lest some gloominess might stain her sky,
Trees there the duty of the clouds supply :
O noble trust which heaven on this isle pours,
Fertile to be, yet never need her showers !
A happy people, which at once do gain
The benefits, without the ills, of rain !
Both health and profit fate cannot deny.
Where still the earth is moist, the air still dry 4
The jarring elements no discord know.
Fuel and rain together kindly grow ;
And coolness there with heat does never fight,
This only rules by day, and that by night.
Your worth to all these isles a jut-t right brings,
The best of lands should have the best of kings.
And these want nothing heaven can afford,
Unless it be, the having you their lord ;
But this great want will not a long one prove,
Your conquering sword will soon that want
remove ;
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OF MARVELL. 121
For Spain had better, she'll ere long confess,
Have broken all her swords, tlian this one
peace;
Casting that league off, which she held so long,
She cast off that which only made her strong.
Forces and art, she soon will feel, are vain,
Peace, against you, was the sole strength of
Spain ;
By that alone those islands she secures.
Peace makes them hers, but war will make them
yours.
There the rich grape the soil indulgent breeds.
Which of the gods the fancied drink exceeds.
They still do yield, such is their precious mould.
All that is good, and are not cursed with gold ;
With fatal gold, for still where that does grow
Neither the soil, nor people, quiet know ;
Which troubles men to raise it when 'tis ore.
And when 'tis raised does trouble them much
more.
Ah, why was thither brought that cause of war.
Kind nature had from thence removed so faj^ !
In vain doth she those islands free from ill.
If fortune can make guilty what she will.
But whilst I draw that scene, where you, ere
long.
Shall conquests act, you present are unsung.
For Santa Cruz the glad fleet takes her way.
And safely there casts anchor in the bay.
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122 THE POEMS
Never so many, with one joyful cry,
That place salated, where they all must die.
Deluded men I Fate with you did hut sport,
You 'scaped the sea, to perish in your port
Twas more for England's fame you should die
there,
Where you had most of strength and least of
fear.
The Peak's proud height the Spaniards all
admire,
Yet in their breasts carry a pride much higher.
Only to this vast hill a power is given,
At once both to inhabit earth and heaven.
But this stupendous prospect did not near
Make them admire, so much as they did fear.
For here they met with news, which did pro-
duce
A grief, above the cure of grape's best juice.
They learned with terror, that nor summer's heat,
Nor winter's storms, had made your fleet retreat.
To fight against such foes was vain, they knew.
Which did the rage of elements subdue.
Who on the ocean, that does horror give
To all beside, triumphantly do live.
With haste they therefore all their galleons
moor.
And flank with cannon from the neighbouring
shore ;
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OP MARVELL. 123
Forts, lines, and sconces, all the bay along,
They build, and act all that can make them
strong.
Fond men ! who knew not whilst such works
they raise,
They only labour to exalt your praise.
Yet they by restless toil became at length.
So proud and confident of their made strength,
That they with joy their boasting general heard
Wish then for that assault he lately feared.
His wish he had, for now undaunted Blake,
With winged speed, for Santa Cruz does make.
For your renown, the conquering fleet does ride,
O'er seas as vast as is the Spaniard's pride.
Whose fleet and trenches viewed, you soon did
say,
We to their strength are more obliged tlian
they;
Wer't not for that, they firom their fate would
run.
And a third world seek out, our arms to shun.
Those forts, which there so high and strong
appear,
Do not so much suppress, as show their fear.
Of speedy victory let no man doubt.
Our worst work passed, now we have found
them out.
Behold their navy does at anchor lie.
And they are ours, for now they cannot fly.
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124 THE rOEMS
This said, the whole fleet gave it their ap-
plause,
And all assume your courage, in your cause.
That bay they enter, which unto them owes
The noblest wreaths which victory bestows ;
Bold Stanier leads ; this fleet's designed by fate
To give him laurel, as the last did plate.
The thundering cannon now begins the fight,
And, though it be at noon, creates a night ;
The air was soon, after the fight begun.
Far more enfiamed by it, than by the sun.
Never so burning was that climate known ;
War turned the temperate, to the torrid zone.
Fate these two fleets, between both worlds, had
brought,
Who fight, as if for both those worlds they
sought.
Thousands of ways, thousands of men there die,
Some ships are sunk, some blown up in the sky.
Nature ne'er made cedars so high aspire
As oaks did then, urged by the active fire
Which, by quick powder's force, so high was
sent
That it returned to its own element.
Torn limbs some leagues into the island fiy,
Whilst others lower, in the sea, do lie ;
Scarce souls from bodies severed are so far
By death, as bodies there were by the war.
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OP MARVELL. 125
The all-seeing sun ne'er gazed on such a sight,
Two dreadful navies there at anchor fight,
And neither have, or power, or will, to fly ;
There one must conquer, or there both must
die.
Far different motives yet engaged them thus.
Necessity did them, but choice did us,
A choice which did the highest worth express.
And was attended by as high success ;
For your resistless genius there did reign.
By which we laurels reaped e'en on the main.
So prosperous stars, though absent to the sense,
Bless those they shine for by their influence.
Our cannon now tears every ship and sconce.
And o'er two elements triumphs at once.
Their galleons sunk, their wealth the sea does
fill.
The only place where it can cause no ill.
Ah ! would those treasures which both Indias
hare
Were buried in as large, and deep a grave !
War's chief support with them would buned be.
And the land owe her peace unto the sea.
Ages to come your conquering arms will bles. -*,
There they destroyed what had destroyed their
peace ;
And in one war the present age may bojjst,
The certain seeds of many wai's are lost.
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126 THE POEMS
All the foe's ships destroyed by sea or Hre,
Victorious Blake does from the bay retire.
His siege of Spain he then again pursues,
And there first brings of his success the news ;
The saddest news that e*er to Spain was broiijjiht,
Their rich fleet sunk, and ours with laurel fraught,
Whilst fame in every place her trumpet blows.
And tells the world how much to you it owes.
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OF MABVELL. 127
THE LOYAL SCOT.
BT CLEVELAND'S GHOST, UPON THE DEATH OF
CAPTAIN DOUOLASy WHO WAS BURNED ON HIS
SHIP AT CHATHAM.
Of the old heroes when the warlike shades
Saw Douglas marching on the Elysian glades,
They all, consulting, gathered in a ring,
Which of the poets should his welcome sing ;
And, as a favourable penance, chose
Cleveland, on whom they would that task impose.
He understood, but willingly addressed
His ready muse, to court that noble guest.
Much had he cured the tumour of his vein.
He judged more clearly now and saw more
plain ;
For those soft airs had tempered every thought.
Since of wise Lethe he had drunk a draught.
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128 THE POEMS
Abruptly he begun, disguising art,
As of his satire this had been a part*
Not so, brave Douglas, on whose lovely chin
Tlie early down but newly did begin.
And modest beauty yet his sex did veil
While envious virgins hope he is a male.
His yellow locks curl back themselves to seek.
Nor other courtship knew but to his cheek.
Oft as he in chill Esk or Tyne, by night,
Hardened and cooled his limbs, so soft, so white,
Among the reeds, to be espied by him.
The nymphs would rustle, he would forward
swim.
They sighed, and said, fond boy, why so untame,
To fly love's fires, reserved for other fiame ?
First on his ship he faced that horrid day,
And wondered much at those who ran away.
No other fear himself could comprehend.
Than lest heaven fall ere thither he ascend :
But entertains the while his time, too short,
With birding at the Dutch, as if in sport ;
Or waves his sword, and, could he them conjure
Within his circle, knows himself secure.
• Cleveland wrote a poem, in Latin and English, which ho
called, JiebeUis ScotuSy The Rebel Soot: A sntirc on the
oatioa in general. He ends thus,
"A Scot, when from the gallows-tree got loose,
*^ Drops into Styx, and turns a Solund goose. **
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OF MARVELL. 129
The fatal bark him boards with grappling fire,
And safely through its port the Dutch retire.
That precious life he yet disdains to save,
Or with known art to try the gentle wave.
Much him the honour of his ancient race
Inspired, nor would he his own deeds deface ;
And secret joy in his calm soul does rise,
That Monk looks on to see liow Douglas dies.
Like a glad lover the fierce fiames lie meets.
And tries his first embraces in their sheets ;
His shape exact, which the bright fiames
enfolds
Like the sun's statue stands of burnished gold ;
Round the transparent fire about him glows,
As the clear amber on the bees does close.
And, as on angels' heads their glories shine,
His burning locks adorn his face divine.
But when in his immortal mind he felt
His altering form and soldered limbs to melt,
Down on the deck he laid himself, and died,
With his dear sword reposing by his side.
And on the fiaming plank so rests his head.
As one that warmed himself, and went to bed.
His ship bums down, and with his relics sinks,
And the sad stream beneath his ashes drinks.
Fortunate boy ! if either pencil's fame,
Or if my verse can propagate thy name.
When CEta and Alcides are forgot,
Our English youth shall sing the valiant Scot.
9
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180 THE POEMS
Sbip-saddles, Pegasas, thou needst not brag,
Sometimes the galloway proves the better nag.
Shall not a death so generous, when told,
Unite our distance, fill our breaches old ?
So in the Roman foinim, Curtius brave
Galloping down, closed up the gaping cave.
No more discourse of Scotch and English race.
Nor chant the fabulous hunt of Chevy-Chace ;
Mixed in Corinthian metal at thy flame.
Our nations melting thy Colossus frame.
Prick down the point, whoever has the art,
Where nature Scotland does from England
part; —
Anatomists may sooner ^x the cells
Where life resides, and understanding dwelb.
But this we know, though that exceeds our
skill,
That whosoever separates them does ill.
Will you the Tweed that sullen bounder call,
Of soil, of wit, of manners, and of all ?
Why draw you not, as well, the thrifty line
From Thames, from Humber, or at least the
Tyne?
So may we the state-corpulence redress,
And little England, when we please, make less.
What ethic river is this wond'rous Tweed,
Whose one bank virtue, t'other vice, does
breed ?
Or what new perpendicular does rise.
Up from her streams, continued to the skies.
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OF MARVELL. 131
That between us the common air should bar,
And split the influence of every star ?
But *who considers right, will find indeed,
'Tis Holy Island parts us, not the Tweed.
Nothing but clergy could us two seclude,
No Scotch was ever like a bishop's feud.
All Litanies in this have wanted faith.
There's no deliver us from a bishop* s wrath.
Never shall Calvin pardoned be for sales, \
Never, for Burnet's sake, the Lauderdales ;r C
For Becket's sake, Kent always shall have tales. )
Who fcermons e'er can pacify and prayers ?
Or to the joint stools reconcile the chairs ?
Though kingdoms join, yet church will kirk
oppose;
The mitre still divides, the crown does close ;
As in Hogation week they whip us round.
To keep in tim« the Scotch and English bound.
What the ocean binds is by the bishops rent,
As seas make islands in the continent.
Nature in vain us in one land compiles.
If the cathedral still shall have its isles.
Nothing, not bogs nor sands nor seas nor Alps,
Separates the world so as the bishops scalps ;
Stretch for the line their surcingle alone,
'Twill make a more inhabitable zone.
The friendly loadstone has not more combined,
Than bishops cramped the commerce of mankind.
Had it not been for such a bias strong.
Two nations ne'er had missed the mark so long.
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132 THE rOEMS
The world in all doth but two nations bear,
The good, the bad, and these mixed everywhere ;
Under each pole place either of these two.
The bad will basely, good will bravely, do ;
And few, indeed, can parallel our climes,
For worth heroic, or heroic crimes^
The trial would, however, be too nice,
Which stronger were, a Scotch or English vice ;
Or whether the same virtue would reflect.
From Scotch or English heart, the same effect.
Nation is all but name, a Shibboleth,
Where a mistaken accent causes death.
In Paradise names only nature showed.
At Babel names from pride and discord flowed ;
And ever since men, with a female spite,
First call each other names, and then they fight.
Scotland and England cause a just uproar ;
Do man and wife signify rogue and whore ?
Say but a Scot and straight we fall to sides ;
That syllable like a Picts* wall divides.
Rational men's words pledges are of peace ;
Perverted, serve dissension to increase.
For shame extirpate from each loyal breast
That senseless rancour, against interest.
One king, one faith, one language, and one i«le,
English and Scotch, 'tis all but cross and pile.
Charles, our great soul, this only understands ;
He our affections both, and wills, commands ;
And where twin-sympathies cannot alone.
Knows the last secret, how to make us one.
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OP MARYELL. 133
Just SO the prudent husbandman, that sees
The idle tumult of his factious bees,
The morning dews, and flowers, neglected grown,
The hive a comb-case, every bee a drone,
Powders them o'er, till none discerns his foes,
And all themselves in meal and friendship lose ;
The insect kingdom straight begins to thrive.
And all work honey for the common hive.
Pardon, young hero, this so long transport.
Thy death more noble did the same extort.
My former satire for this verse forget,
My fault against my recantation set
I single did against a nation write.
Against a nation thou didst singly fight.
My differing crimes do more thy virtue raise.
And, such my rashness, best thy valour praise.
Here Douglas smiling said, he did intend,
Afler such frankness shown, to be his friend.
Forewarned him therefore, lest in time he were
Metempsychos'd to some Scotch Presbyter.
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134 THE POEMS
A HORATIAN ODE
UPON CROMWELL'S RETURN FROM IRELAND.
The forward youth that woald appear.
Must now forsake his muses dear.
Nor in the shadows sing
His numbers languishing :
'Tis time to leave the books in dusty
And oil the unused armour's rust,
Removing from the wall
The corselet of the hall.
So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious arts of peace,
But through adventurous war
Urged his active star ;
And, like the three-forked lightning, first
Breaking the clouds where it was nurst,
Did thorough his own side
His fiery way divide ;
(For 'tis all one to courage high,
The emulous, or enemy,
And with such to inclose,
Is more than to oppose ;)
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OF MARVELL.
Then burning througli the air he went,
And palaces and temples rent ;
And Caesar's head at last
Did through his laurels blast.
'Tis madness to resist or blame
The force of angry heaven's flame ;
And if we would speak true,
Much to the man is due,
Who from his private gardens, where
He lived reserved and austere,
As if his highest plot
To plant the bergamot,
Could bj industrious valour climb
To ruin the great work of Time,
And cast the kingdoms old.
Into another mould.
Though Justice against Fate complain,
And plead the ancient rights in vain,
[But those do hold or break,
As men are strong or weak,]
Nature, that hateth emptiness.
Allows of penetration less,
And therefore must make room
Where greater spirits comtj.
What field of all the civil war.
Where his were not the deepest scar ?
And Hampton shows what part
He had of wiser art ;
Where, twining subtile feai*s with hope,
He wove a net of such a scope
13. 5
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13G THK POKMS
That Charles himself might chase
To Carisbrook s narrow cjisc,
That thence the royal actor borne,
The tragic scaffold might adorn,
While round the armed bands.
Did clap their bloody hands :
He nothing common did, or mean,
Upon that memorable scene.
But with his keener eye
The axe's edge did try ;
Nor called the gods with vulgar spite
To vindicate his helpless right,
But bowed his comely head
Down, as upon a bed.
This was that memorable hour.
Which first assured the forced power ;
So, when they did design
The . Capitol's first line,
A bleeding bead, where they begun,
Did fright the architects to run ;
And yet in that the state
Foresaw its happy fate.
And now the Irish are ashamed
To see themselves in one year tamed ;
So much one man can do,
That does both act and know.
They can aflirm his praises best.
And have, though overcome, confessed
How good he is, how just,
And fit for highest trust.
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OF MARVELL. 137
Nor yet grown stiffer with command.
But still in the republic's hand,
(How fit he is to sway,
That can so well obey ! )
He to the Commons* feet presents
A kingdom for his first year's rents ;
And, what he may, forbears
His fame, to make it theirs ;
And has his sword and spoils ungirt,
To lay them at the public's skirt :
So when the falcon high
Falls heavy from the sky,
She, having killed, no more doth search.
But on the next green bough to perch ;
Where, when he first does lure.
The falconer has her sure.
What may not then our isle presume.
While victory his crest does plume?
What may not others fear,
If thus he crowns each year ?
As Cffisar, he, ere long, to Gaul,
To Italy a Hannibal,
And to all states not free,
Shall climacteric be.
The Pict no shelter now shall find
Within his party-coloured mind.
But, from this valour sad,
Shrink underneath the plaid ;
Happy, if in the tuAed brake,
The English hunter him mistake.
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138 THE POEMS
Nor lay his hounds in near
The Caledonian deer.
But thou, the war's and fortune's son,
March indefatigably on,
And for the last effect.
Still keep the sword erect ;
Beside the force it has to fright
The spirits of the shady night.
The same arts that did gain
A power, must it maintain.
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OP MARVELL. 139
THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY
OF
THB GOVSRNBCKNT UNDRR HIS HIGHKESS
THE LORD PROTECTOR.
Like the vain curlings of the watery maze,
Which in smooth streams a sinking weight doth
raise,
So man, declining, always disappears
In the weak circles of increasing years ;
And his short tumults of themselves compose.
While flowing time above his head doth close.
Cromwell alone, with greater vigour runs
(Sun-like) the stages of succeeding suns,
And still the day which he doth next restore.
Is the just wonder of the day before ;
Cromwell alone doth with new lustre spring.
And shines the jewel of the yearly ring.
'TIS he the force of scattered time contracts.
And in one year the work of ages acts ;
While heavy monarchs make a wide retprn.
Longer and more malignant than Saturn,
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140 THE POEMS
And they, though all Platonic years should
reign,
In the same posture would be found again ;
Their earthly projects under ground they lay,
More slow and brittle than the China clay ;
Well may they strive to leave them on their
son,
For one thing never was by one king done.
Yet some, more active, for a fix^ntier town
Took in by proxy, begs a false renown ;
Another triuraplis at the public cost,
And will have won, if he no more have lost ;
They fight by others, but in person wrong,
And only are against their subjects strong ;
Their other wars are but a feigned contest.
This common enemy is still opprest ;
If conquerors, on them they turn their might,
If conquered, on them they wreak their spite ;
They neither build the temple in their days.
Nor matter for succeeding founders raise ;
Nor sacred prophecies consult within.
Much less themselves to perfect them begin ;
No other care they bear of things above,
But with astrologers, divine of Jove,
To know how long their planet yet reprieves
From the deserved fate their guilty lives.
Thus (image-like) a useless time they tell.
And with vain sceptre strike the hourly bell.
Nor more contribute to the state of things,
Than wooden heads unto the vioFs strings,
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OF MARVKLL. 141
While indefatigable Cromwell tries,
And cuts his way $till nearer to the skies,
Learning a music in the region clear,
To tune this lower to that higher sphere^
So when Amphion did the lute command,
Which the God gave him, with his gentle hand,.
The rougher stones, unto his measures hew^cd.
Danced up in order from the quarries rude 'r
This took a lower, that a higher place,.
As he the treble altered, or the base ;
No note he struck, but a new story laid.
And the great work ascended while he played-
The listening structures he with wonder eyed,.
And still new stops to various time applied ;
Now through the strings a martial rage he
throws,
And joining, straight the Theban tower arose ;
Then as he strokes them with a touch more
sweet,
The flocking marbles in a palace meet ;
But for he most the graver notes did try,
Therefore the temples reared their columns high :
Thus, ere he ceased, his sacred lute creates
The harmonious city of the seven gates.
- Such was that wondrous order and consent,
When Cromwell tuned the ruling instrument ;
While tedious statesmen nmny years did hack,
Framing a liberty that still went back ;
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142 lilK rOKMS
Whose nuinerous gorge coul«l swallow in an hour.
That island which the sea cannot devour:
Then our Amphion issues out and sings,
And once he struck, and twice the powerful
strings.
The Commonwealth then first together came.
And each one entered in the willing frame.
All other matter yields, and may be ruled,
But who the minds of stubborn men can build ?
No quarry bears a stone so hardly wrought,
Nor with such labour fix>m its centre brought :
None to be sunk in the foundation bends,
Each in the house the highest place contends ;
And each the hand that lays him will direct.
And some fall back upon the architect ;
Yet all, composed by his attractive song,
Into the animated city throng.
The Commonwealth does through their cen-
tres all
Draw the circumference of the public wall ;
The crossest spirits liere do take their part,
Fastening the coiitignation which they thwart :
And they who. sti nature leads them to divide,
Uphold, this ones and that the other side ;
But the most e(|iial still sustain the height,
And they, as pillar-, keep the work upright,
While the resistance of opposed minds.
The fabric, as with arches, stronger binds,
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OP MARVELL. 143
Which, on the basis of a senate free,
Knit by the roof's protecting weight, agree.
When for his foot he thus a place had found,
He hurls e'er since the world about him round ;
And in his seveial aspects, like a star.
Here shines in peace, and thither shoots a war,
While by his beams observing princes steer.
And wisely court the influence they fear.
O, would they rather, by his pattern won,
Kiss the approaching, nor yet angry sun,
And in their numbered footsteps humbly tread
The path where holy oracles do lead.
How might they under such a captain raise
The great designs kept for the latter days !
But mad with reason, [so miscalled] of state, •
They know them not, and what they know not,
hate.
Hence still they sing Hosanna to the whore.
And, him whom they should massacre, adore ;
But Indians, whom they should convert, subdue,
Nor teach, but traffic with, or bum the Jew.
Unhappy princes, ignorantly bred.
By malice some, by error more misled,
If gracious Heaven to my life give length.
Leisure to time, and to my weakness strength,
Then shall 1 once with graver accents shake
Your regal sloth and your long slumbers wake,
Like the shrill huntsman that prevents the east;
Winding his horn to kings that chase the bejCst !
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144 THE POEMS
mi then my muse shall halloa far behind
Angelic Cromwell, who outwings the wind.
And in dark nights, and in cold days, alone
Pnrsnes the monster thorough every throne.
Which shrinking to her Roman den impure.
Gnashes her gory teeth ; nor there secure.
Hence oft I think, if in some happy hour
High grace sliould meet in one with highest
power.
And then a seasonable people still
Should bend to his, as he to Heaven's will.
What we might hope, what wonderful effect
From such a wished conjuncture might reflect !
Sure, the mysterious work, where none with-
stand.
Would forthwith finish under such a hand ;
Foreshortened time its useless course would stay,
And soon precipitate the latest day :
But a thick cloud about that morning lies.
And intercepts the beams to mortal eyes,
That 'tis the most which we determine can,
If these the times, then this must be the man v
And well he therefore docs, and well has guessed,
Who in his age has always forward pressed
And knowing not where Heaven's choice may
light,
Girds yet his sword, and ready stands to fight.
But men, alas ! as if ihey nothing cared,
Look on, all unconcerned, or unprepared ;
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OF MARVELL. 145
And stars still fall, and still the dragon's tail
Swinges the volumes of its horrid flail ;
For the great justice that did first suspend
The world by sin, does by the same extend.
Hence that blest day still counterpoised wastes,
The ill delaying, what the elected hastes ;
Hence, landing. Nature to new seas is tost,
And good designs still with their authors lost.
And thou, great Cromwell, for whose happy
birth
A mould was chosen out of better earth,
Whose saint-like mother we did lately see
Live out an age, long as a pedigree.
That she might seem, could we the fall dispute,
To have smelt the blossom, and not eat the fruit, —
Though none does of more lasting parents grow,
Yet never any did them honour so.
Though th^u thine heart from evil still sus-
tained.
And always hast thy tongue from fraud refraincrl,
Thou, who so oft through storms of thundering
lead
Hast borne securely thine undaunted head ;
Thy breast through poniarding conspiracies,
Drawn from the sheath of lying prophecies.
The f>roof beyond all other force or skill.
Our sins endanger, and shall one day kill.
How neai- they failed, and in thy sudden fall,
At oiHH' assayed to overturn us all ?
10
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146 THE POEMS
Our British fury, struggling to be free,
Hurried thy horses, while they hurried thee ;
When thou hadst almost quit thy mortal Ciires,
And soiled in dust thy crown of silver hairs.
Let this one sorrow interweave among
The other glories of our yearly song ;
Like skilful looms, which through the costly
thread
Of purling ore, a shining wave do shed,
So shall the tears we on past grief employ,
Still as they trickle, glitter in our joy ;
So with more modesty we may be true,
And speak, as of the dead, the praises due,
While impious men, deceived with pleasure
short,
'On their own hopes shall find the fall retort.
But the poor beasts, wanting their ^oble guide,
[What could they more ? ] shrunk guiltily aside :
First winged fear transports them far away,
And leaden sorrow then their flight did stay.
See how they both their towering crests abate,
And the green grass and their known mangers
hate,
Nor through wide nostrils snuff the wanton air,
Nor their round hoofs or curled manes compare ;
With wandering eyes and restless ears they
stood,
And with slirill n*i};liiiigs asked him of the wood.
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OP MARVELL. 147
Thou, Cromwell, falling, not a stupid tree^
Or rock so savage, but it mourned for thee ;
And all about was heard a panic groan,
As if that nature's self were overthrown.
It seemed the earth did from the centre tear.
It seemed the sun was fallen from his sphere :
Justice obstructed lay, and reason fooled,
Courage disheartened, and religion cooled ;
A dismal silence through the palace went,
And then loud shrieks the vaulted marbles rent :
Such as the dying chorus sings by turns,
And to deaf seas and ruthless tempests mourns.
When now they sink, and now the plundering
streams,
Break up each deck and rip the open seams.
But thee triumphant, hence, the fiery car
And fiery steeds had borne out of the war,
From the low world and thankless men, above
Unto the kingdom blest of peace and love :
We only mourned ourselves in thine ascent,
Whom thou hadst left beneath with mantle rent,
For all delight of life thou then didst lose.
When to command thou didst thyself depose,
Resigning up thy privacy so dear.
To turn the headstrong people's charioteer ;
For to be Cromwell was a greater thing.
Than aught below, or yet above, a king :
Therefore thou rather didst thyself depress,
Yielding to rule, because it made thee less.
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148 TUB POEMS
For neither didst thou from the first apply
Thy sober spirit unto things too high ;
But in tin'ne own fields exereisedst long
A healthful mind within a body strong.
Till at the seventh time, thou in the skies,
As a small cloud, like a man's hand didst rise ;
Then did thick mists and winds the air deform,
And down at last thou pouredst the fertile i>iovm
Which to the thirety land did plenty bring ;
But thou, forewarned, overtook and wet the king.
What since thou didst, a higher force thee pushed
Still from behind, and it before thee rushed.
Though undiscerned among the tumult blind,
Who think those high decrees by man designed,
'Twas Heaven would not that ere thy power
should cease.
But walk still middle betwixt war and peace ;
Choosing each stone, and poising every weight,
Trying the measures of the breadth and height,
Here pulling down, and there erecting new.
Founding a firm state by proportions true.
When Gideon so did from the war retreat.
Yet by the conquest of two kings grown great,
He on the peace extends a warlike power,
And Israel, silent, saw him rase the tower.
And how lie 8uccoth*s elders durst suppress
With thorns and briars of the wilderness ;
No king might ever such a force have done,
Yet would not he be lord, nor yet his son.
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OP MARVELL. 149
Thou with the same strength, and a heart so
plain,
Didst like thine olive still refuse to reign ;
Though why should others all thy labour spoil,
And brambles be anointed with thine oil,
Whose climbing flame, without a timely stop,
Had quickly levelled every cedar's top ?
Therefore, fii*st growing to thyself a law,
The ambitious shrubs thou in just time didst awe.
So have I seen at sea, when whirling winds
Hurry the bark, but more the seamen's minds,
Who with mistaken course salute the sand,
And threatening rocks misapprehend for land, —
While baleful tritons to the shipwreck guide.
And corposants* along the tacklings slide, —
The passengers all wearied out before,
Giddy, and wishing for the fatal shore, —
Some lusty mate, who with more careful eye,
Counted the hours, and every star did spy,
The helm does from the artless steersman strain.
And doubles back unto the safer main :
What though awhile they grumble, discontent ?
Saving himself, he does their loss prevent.
*Tis not a freedom that, where all command,
Nor tyranny, where one does them withstand ;
* Marine meteors, which Portuguese nuiriners call the
Bodies of the Saints; corpos santos.
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160 TOE POKMS
But who of both the bounders knows to lay,
Him, as their father, must the state obey.
Thou and thy house, like Noah's eight did rest,
Left by the war's flood, on the mountain's crest •,
And the large vale lay subject to thy will,
Which thou but as an husbandman, wouldst till ;
And only didst for others plant the vine
Of Liberty, not drunken with its wine.
That sober liberty which, men may have.
That they enjoy, but more they vainly crave ;
And such as to their parent's tents do press,
May show their own, not see his nakedness.
Yet such a clammish issue still doth rage,
The shame and plague both of the land and age,
Who watched thy halting, and thy fall divide,
Rejoicing when thy foot had slipped aside,
That their new king might the fifth sceptre
shake.
And make the world, by his example, quake ;
Whose frantic army, should they want for men,
Might muster heresies, so one were ten.
What thy misfortune, they the spirit call,
And their religion only is to fall.
Oh Mahomet ! now couldst thou rise again,
Thy Till )in«; -sickness should have made thee nign ;
While Fcak and Simpson would in many a toin**
Have Nvrit the comments of thy sacred foam :
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OF MAUVELL. 151
For soon thou might'st have passed among their
ranty
AVer't but for thine unmoved tulipant ;
As thou must needs have owned them of thy
band,
For prophecies fit to be alcoraned.
Accursed locusts, whom your king does spit
Out of the centre of the unbottomed pit ;
Wanderers, adulterers, liars, Muntzer*s rest,
Sorcerers, atheists, Jesuits, possest.
You, who the Scriptures and the laws deface.
With the same liberty as points and lace ;
O race ! most hypocritically strict,
Bent to reduce us to the ancient Pict,
Well may you act the Adam and the Eve,
Ay, and the serpent too, that did deceive.
But the great captain, now the danger's o*er,
Makes you, for his sake, tremble one fit more ;
And, to your spite, returning yet alive,
Does with himself, all that is good, revive.
So, when first man did through the morning dew.
See the bright sun his shining race pursue,
All day he followed, with unwearied sight.
Pleased with that other world of moving light ;
But thought him, M' hen he missed his setting
beams.
Sunk in the hills, or plunged below the strr. uiis,
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152 THE POEMS
While dismal blacks hung round the universe,
And stars, like tapers, burned upon his hearse ;
And owls and ravens with their screeching noise^
Did make their funerals sadder by their joys.
His weeping eyes the doleful vigils keep.
Not knowing yet the night was made for sleep.
Still to the west, where he him lost, he turned.
And with such accents, as despairing, mourned ;
*' Why did mine eyes once see so bright a ray ?
Or why day last no longer than a day ? '*
When straight the sun behind him he descried,
Smiling serenely from the further side.
So while our star that gives us light and heat.
