something

From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill.
Sometime walking not unseen

By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate,

Where the great Sun begins his state,
Rob'd in flames, and amber light,

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iven at afhe clouds in thousand liveries dight, deche, arranged.

While the ploughman near at hand,
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets his sithe,
And every shepherd tells his tale

Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
Whilst the landscape round it measures;

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70

Russet lawns, and fallows gray, light-brown, as in Gray Frias.

et words, Where the nibbling flocks do stray,

Mountains on whose barren breast

The labouring clouds do often rest;

Meadows trim with daisies pied, trimmed

Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.

Towers, and battlements it sees
Bosom'd high in tufted trees,

Where perhaps some beauty lies, reside

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The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes, coutellation f80 the Little
Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes, bean by which the Phoemi-
From betwixt two aged oaks; a manners aleases theis
Where Corydon and Thyrsis met, course, as the Greeks did
Are at their savoury dinner set by the lyrect Bear. bifs bromme
Of herbs, and other country messes,
342.
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses;
And then in haste her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves;
Or if the earlier season lead

To the tann'd haycock in the mead.
Sometimes with secure delight void
The upland hamlets will invite;

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Home of the words (ill-stars, disastrous, accendancy) which still testify to the nece prevalent belief in astrology. EARLY POEMS, 1624-1637.

32

When the merry bells ring round,

And the jocund rebecks sound fiddles
To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequer'd shade;
And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday, of bonus 759.
Till the live-long day-light fail;
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,
With stories told of many a feat,
How faery Mab the junkets eat;
She was pincht and pull'd she sed;
And he by friars' lantern led,
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn his cream-bowl duly set;
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end.
Then lies him down the lubbar fiend,
And stretcht out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength;
And crop-full out of doors he flings,

Ere the first cock his matin rings.

Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whispering winds soon lull'd asleep.
Towred cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men,

4

plenty of may.

Where throngs of knights and barons bold,
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,
With store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit, or arms, while both contend
To win her grace, whom all commend.
There let Hymen oft appear,
In saffron robe, with taper clear,
And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
With mask, and antique pageantry;
Such sights as youthful poets dream
On summer eves by haunted stream.

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Married to immortal verse;

Such as the meeting soul may pierce,

In

notes with many a winding bout old or

Of linked sweetness long drawn out;

With wanton heed, and giddy cunning,

The melting voice through mazes running;
Untwisting all the chains that tie

The hidden soul of harmony.

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135

twist

140

but

HENCE vain deluding joys,

The brood of Folly without father bred,
How little you bested, plan

Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys;
Dwell in some idle brain;

And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess,
As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the sun-beams,
Or likest hovering dreams,

5

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus train. +10 plent But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy, dressed

Hail divinest Melancholy,

"Cassiope, wife to bephens, King of 8 thiskin, the mother

of Andromeda.

34

EARLY POEMS, 1624-1637.

Whose saintly visage is too bright

meet, Touch To hit the sense of human sight;

norf. becoming

and

And therefore to our weaker view,
O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue;
Black, but such as in esteem

Prince Memnon's sister might beseem;

15

made a

20

f

Or that starr'd Ethiop queen that strove costellatio
To set her beauty's praise above

The sea nymphs, and their powers offended.
Yet thou art higher far descended;

Thee bright-hair'd Vesta long of yore, daw of Saturne.

To solitary Saturn bore;

His daughter she (in Saturn's reign,
Such mixture was not held a stain);
Oft in glimmering bow'rs, and glades
He met her; and in secret shades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come pensive Nun, devout and pure,

Sober, stedfast, and demure, grave, son.

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30

All in a robe of darkest grain, car, v. Comus 750.
Flowing with majestic train,

And sable stole of cipres lawn, rope.
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
"Come, but keep thy wonted state,

our sense of With ev'n step, and musing gait,

propriety.

And looks commércing with the skies,

Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:

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40

trimoned

There held in holy passion still,

Forget thyself to marble, till

With a sad leaden downward cast,

Thou fix them on the earth as fast.

And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,

45

Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet,

And hears the Muses in a ring,

Aye round about Jove's altar sing.
And add to these retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;

50

But first, and chiefest, with thee bring,
Him that soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
The cherub Contemplation,
And the mute Silence hist along,
'Less Philomel will deign a song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of Night,
While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke,

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Gently o'er th' accustom'd oak: The oak from 60
Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of folly, we a
Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee chauntress oft the woods among,

I woo to hear thy even-song;

And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandring Moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the Heav'ns wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfeu sound,

пишу

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which her.

at & or at 9 o'clock,

Over some wide-water'd shore, het commernest 5 at 8. .

Swinging slow with sullen roar;

Or if the air will not permit,

Some still removed place will fit, remote

Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom,
Far from all resort of mirth,
Save the cricket on the hearth,
Or the bellman's drowsy charm,

To bless the doors from nightly harm:
Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high lonely tow'r,

studying Where I may oft out-watch the Bear,

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by right

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