COMPLIMENTARY VERSES.

IN PARADISUM AMISSAM SUMMI POETAE JOHANNIS MILTONI.

Qui legis Amissam Paradisum, grandia magni

Carmina Miltoni, quid nisi cuncta legis ?
Res cunctas, et cunctarum primordia rerum,

Et fata, et fines continet iste liber.
Intima panduntur magni penetralia mundi;

Scribitur et toto quicquid in orbe latet;
Terræque, tractusque maris, cælumque profundum

Sulphureumque Erebi flammivomumque specus;
Quæque colunt terras, portumque et Tartara cæca,

Ad pænas fugiunt, et ceu foret Orcus asylum

Infernis certant condere se tenebris. Cedite Romani scriptores, cedite Graii

Et quos fama recens vel celebravit anus. Hæc quicunque leget tantum cecinisse putabit

Mæonidem ranas, Virgilium culices.

SAMUEL BARROW, M. D.

ON PARADISE LOST.

When I beheld the poet blind, yet bold,
In slender book his vast design unfold,
Messiah crown'd, God's reconcil'd decree,
Rebelling angels, the forbidden tree,
Ileav'n, hell, earth, chaos, all; the argument
Held me awhile misdoubting his intent,
That he would ruine (for I saw him strong)
The sacred truths to Fable and old song:
(So Sampson grop'd the temple's posts in spite)
The world o'erwhelming to revenge bis sight.

Yet as I read, soon growing less severe,
I lik'd his project, the success did fear;
Through that wide field how he his way should find
O'er which lame faith leads understanding blind;
Lest he perplex'd the things he would explain,
And what was easy he should render vain.

Or if a work so infinite he spann'd,
Jealous I was that some less skilful hand
(Such as disquiet always what is well,
And by ill imitating would excel)
Might hence presume the whole creation's day
To change in scenes, and show it in a play.

Pardon me, mighty poet, nor despise
My causeless, yet not impious, surmise.
But I am now convinc'd, and none will dare
Within thy labours to pretend a share.
Thou hast not miss'd one thought that could be fit,
And all that was improper dost omit:
So that no room is here for writers left,
But to detect their ignorance or theft.

That majesty which through thy work doth reign
Draws the devout, deterring the profane.
And things divine thou treat’st of in such state
As them preserves, and thee, inviolate.
At once delight and horror on us seize,
Thou sing'st with so much gravity and ease,
And above human flight dost soar aloft
With plume so strong, so equal, and so soft.
The bird nam'd from that paradise you sing
So never flags, but always keeps on wing.

Where could'st thou words of such a compass find ?
Whence furnish such a vast expanse of mind ?
Just heav'n thee like Tiresias to requite
Rewards with prophecy thy loss of sight.

Well mightest thou scorn thy readers to allure
With tinkling rhyme, of thy own sense secure;
While the town-bayes writes all the while and spells,
And like a pack-horse tires without his bells:
Their fancies like our bushy points appear,
The poets tag them, we for fashion wear.
I too, transported by the mode, offend,
And while I meant to praise thee, must commend.2
Thy verse created like thy theme sublime,
In number, weight, and measure, needs not rhyme.

.

:

ANDREW MARVEL.

1

1 See note in Life, p. Ixxvii.
R

VOL. I.

PARADISE LOST.