2 Into thy presence let my pray'r With sighs devout ascend,

And to my cries, that ceaseless are,

Thine ear with favour bend.

3 For cloy'd with woes and trouble store
Surcharg'd my soul doth lie,

My life at death's uncheerful door
Unto the grave draws nigh. ́

4 Reckon'd I am with them that pass

Down to the dismal pit,

I am a man, but weak alas,

And for that name unfit.

5 From life discharg'd and parted quite Among the dead to sleep,

And like the slain in bloody fight

That in the grave lie deep.

Whom thou rememberest no more,

Dost never more regard,

Them from thy hand deliver'd o'er

Death's hideous house hath barr'd.

6 Thou in the lowest pit profound

Hast set me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,

In horrid deeps to mourn.

7 Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves,
Full sore doth press on me;

Thou break'st upon me all thy waves,
And all thy waves break me.

8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange,
And mak'st me odious,

10

15

20

25

34

Me to them odious, for they change,

And I here pent up thus.

9 Through sorrow and affliction great,
Mine
eye grows dim and dead,
Lord, all the day I thee intreat,

My hands to thee I spread.

10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead? Shall the deceas'd arise,

And praise thee from their loathsome bed

With pale and hollow eyes?

11 Shall they thy loving kindness tell
On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?

2 In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion ?

13 But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,
Ere yet my life be spent,

And up to thee my pray'r doth hie,
Each morn, and thee prevent.

14 Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake,
And hide thy face from me,

15 That am already bruis'd, and shake
With terror sent from thee?

Bruis'd and afflicted, and so low
As ready to expire,

While I thy terrors undergo

Astonish'd with thine ire.

16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow,

Thy threat'nings cut me through: 17 All day they round about me go, Like waves they me pursue.

18 Lover and friend thou hast remov'd,
And sever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have lov'd,
And as in darkness are.

65

70

5

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.* 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 troubled 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?

10

* This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest performances. Warton.

9

recoil] The rhymes probably from Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 337.

'Ay Satan aims our constant faith to foil,

But God doth seal it, never to recoil.' Dunster.

Shake, Earth, and at the presence be aghast
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.

15

PSALM CXXXVI.

LET us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind,
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Let us blaze his name abroad,

For of Gods he is the God:

For his, &c.

O let us his praises tell,

Who doth the wrathful tyrants quell:

For his, &c.

Who with his miracles doth make

Amazed heaven and earth to shake:
For his, &c.

Who by his wisdom did create

The painted heavens so full of state:
For his, &c.

Who did the solid earth ordain

To rise above the watery plain :

17 crush] The rhymes from Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 30. And so one humour doth another crush,

23

Till to the ground their liquid pearls do gush.' Dunster.

watery plain] P. L. i. 396.

• Rabba, and her watery plain!'

Todd.

For his, &c.

Who by his all-commanding might
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 :

For his, &c.

golden-tressed] Buchanan's trans. of this psalm.

Qui solem auricomum jussit dare jura diei.' Todd. 'The golden-tressed sun.' Benlowes's Theophila, p. 42.

3 spangled] See notes on P. L. vii. 384, 581.

36 thunder] Whose thunder-clasping hand.' Benlowes's Theophila, p. 88.

fell] Mr. Dunster refers to Sylvester's Du Bartas, for these rhymes, pp. 357, 377, 438, 478. At p. 361 Pharaoh' is called 'fell.'

45 cleft] Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 48.

And

His dreadful voice to save his antient sheep,
Did cleave the bottom of th' Erythréan deep.'

P. 967. The Erythrean ruddy billows roar.' Dunster.