What wondrous 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,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less
Withdraws into its happiness ;-

The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find:
Yet it creates, transcending these,
For other worlds and other seas,
Annihilating all that's made

To a green thought in a green shade.

Here at the fountain's sliding foot,
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide:
There, like a bird, it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs 1 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 :

Two paradises 'twere in one

To live in paradise alone.

1 Plumes.

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 ;
And, as it works, the industrious bee
Computes its time as well as we!

How could such sweet and wholesome hours
Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers?

A. MARVELL

61. TO TIME

ETERNAL TIME! that wastest without waste, That art, and art not,—diest and livest still; Most slow of all, and yet of greatest haste;

Both ill and good, and neither good nor ill: How can I justly praise thee, or dispraise? Dark are thy nights, but bright and clear thy days.

Both free and scarce, thou givest and takest again. Thy womb, that all doth breed, is tomb to all; What so by thee hath life by thee is slain;

From thee do all things rise, to thee they fall : Constant, inconstant; moving, standing still; Was, is, shall be, do thee both breed and kill.

I lose thee, while I seek to find thee out;
The farther off, the more I follow thee;
The faster hold, the greater cause of doubt;

Was, is, I know; but shall I cannot see:
All things by thee are measured, thou by none;
All are in thee; thou in thyself alone.

A. W.1 (cir. 1600)

1 The owner of these initials has never been discovered.

62. THE ARMADA

A FRAGMENT

ATTEND, all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise;

I tell of the thrice famous deeds she wrought in ancient days,

When that great fleet invincible against her bore in vain

The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain.

It was about the lovely close of a warm summer

day, 1

There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay:

Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle,2

At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile.

At sunrise she escaped their van, by God's especial

grace;

And the tall Pinta, till the noon, had held her close in chase.

Forthwith a guard at every gun, was placed along the wall;

The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecombe's lofty hall;

Many a light fishing-bark put out to pry along the

coast,

And with loose rein and bloody spur rode inland

many a post.

1 June 19 (old style), 1588.

2 Alderney.

With his white hair unbonneted, the stout old sheriff comes;

Behind him march the halberdiers; before him sound the drums;

His yeomen round the market cross make clear an ample space;

For there behoves him to set up the standard of Her Grace.

And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily dance the bells,

As slow upon the labouring wind the royal blazon

swells.

Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up his ancient crown,1

And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay Lilies down!

So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that famed Picard field,

Bohemia's plume, and Genoa's bow, and Cæsar's eagle shield;

2

So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay,

And crushed and torn beneath his claws the

princely hunters lay.

Ho! strike the flagstaff deep, Sir Knight: ho! scatter flowers, fair maids:

Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute: ho! gallants, draw your blades:

1 A crowned lion, supporting the shield on which the English and French arms were quartered, seems to have been first introduced by Henry VIII., and was retained by Elizabeth.

2 In allusion to the King of Bohemia, the Genoese archers, and the King of the Romans, who fought in the Battle of Creci.

Thou sun, shine on her joyously; ye breezes, waft

her wide;

Our glorious Semper Eadem,1 the banner of our

pride.

The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's massy fold;

The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold;

Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea,

Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be.

From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay,

That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day;

For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war-flame spread,

High on St. Michael's Mount it shone: it shone on Beachy Head.

Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire,

Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire.

The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's glittering waves :

The rugged miners poured to war from Mendip's sunless caves!

O'er Longleat's towers, o'er Cranbourne's oaks, the fiery herald flew :

He roused the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu.

1 Queen Elizabeth's motto.