MILTON! THOU SHOULD'ST BE LIVING AT THIS HOUR:
ENGLAND HATH NEED OF THEE: SHE IS A FEN
OF STAGNANT WATERS: ALTAR, SWORD, AND PEN,
FIRESIDE, THE HEROIC WEALTH OF HALL AND BOWER,
HAVE FORFEITED THEIR ANCIENT ENGLISH DOWER
OF INWARD HAPPINESS. WE ARE SELFISH MEN;
OH! RAISE US UP, RETURN TO US AGAIN;
AND GIVE US MANNERS, VIRTUE, FREEDOM, POWER.
THY SOUL WAS LIKE A STAR AND DWELT APART:
THOU HADST A VOICE WHOSE SOUND WAS LIKE THE SEA:
PURE AS THE NAKED HEAVENS, MAJESTIC, FREE,
SO DIDST THOU TRAVEL ON LIFE'S COMMON WAY
IN CHEERFUL GODLINESS; AND YET THY HEART
THE LOWLIEST DUTIES ON HERSELF DID LAY.
Wordsworth. London, 1802.
A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.
This and the following Psalm were done by the Author at fifteen years old.
WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son
After long toil their liberty had won,
And past from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubl'd sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.
The high, huge-bellied mountains skip like rams
Amongst their ewes, the little hills like lambs.
Why fled the Ocean? and why skipt the mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his crystal fountains?
Shake Earth, and at the presence be agast
Of him that ever was, and aye shall last,
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.
Did fill the new-made world with light,
For his, &c.
And caus'd the golden-tressed sun
All the day long his course to run.
For his, &c.
The horned moon to shine by night,
Amongst her spangled sisters bright.
For his, &c.
He with his thunder-clasping hand,
Smote the first-born of Egypt land.
For his, &c.
And in despite of Pharaoh fell
He brought from thence his Israel.
For his, &c.
The ruddy waves he cleft in twain,
Of the Erythræan main.
The floods stood still like walls of glass,
While the Hebrew bands did pass.
But full soon they did devour
All living creatures he doth feed,
And with full hand supplies their need.
Let us therefore warble forth
His mighty majesty and worth.
For his, &c.
That his mansion hath on high
Above the reach of mortal eye.
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
ANNO ÆTATIS XVII. (1626.)
ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT
DYING OF A COUGH.
O FAIREST flower no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken primrose fading timelessly,
Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst outlasted
Bleak Winter's force that made thy blossom dry;
For he being amorous on that lovely dye
That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss
But kill'd alas, and then bewail'd his fatal bliss.
For since grim Aquilo his charioteer
By boistrous rape th' Athenian damsel got,
He thought it toucht his deity full near,
If likewise he some fair one wedded not;
Thereby to wipe away th' infamous blot
Of long-uncoupled bed, and childless eld,
Which 'mongst the wanton gods a foul reproach was held.
So mounting up in icy-pearled car,
Through middle empire of the freezing air
He wander'd long, till thee he spi'd from far,
There ended was his quest, there ceast his care.
Down he descended from his snow-soft chair,
But all unwares with his cold-kind embrace
Unhous'd thy virgin soul from her fair biding place.
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