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Orbed in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,

Mercy will sit between,

Throned in celestial sheen,

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With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;

1

8 inexpressible 2 cf. Job xxxviii: 7 rich, as if woven with threads of silver and gold

With two sister Graces more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore;
Or whether (as some sager sing)

The frolic wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr, with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a-Maying,
There on beds of violets blue

And fresh-blown roses washed in dew,
Filled her with thee, a daughter fair,
So buxom, blithe, and debonair.
Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful Jollity,

Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,

And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter, holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as you go,
On the light fantastic toe;
And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;
And if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreprovèd pleasures free:
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing, startle the dull night,
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to come in spite of sorrow,
And at my window bid good-morrow,
Through the sweet-briar or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine;

5

'Mongst horrid shapes and shrieks and sights unholy!

Find out some uncouth cell,

Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Whilst the landskip1 round it measures:

Russet lawns and fallows grey,

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures

Where the nibbling flocks do stray;
Mountains on whose barren breast
The labouring clouds do often rest;
Meadows trim with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks and rivers wide;
Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies,

The cynosure of neighbouring eyes.
Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrsis met
Are at their savoury dinner set

Of herbs and other country messes,
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 tanned haycock in the mead.
Sometimes, with secure delight,
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,

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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 3 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.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,

Such as the meeting soul may pierce,

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130

If Jonson's learned sock be on,

85

Or sweetest Shakespear, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
And ever, against eating cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal verse,

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In notes with many a winding bout

Of linked sweetness long drawn out,

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90

With wanton heed and giddy cunning,

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

The hidden soul of harmony;

That Orpheus' self may heave his head

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95

From golden slumber on a bed

Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear

And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday,

Such strains as would have won the ear

Till the livelong daylight fail:

Of Pluto to have quite set free His half-regained Eurydice.

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Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

With stories told of many a feat,

These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

How faery Mab the junkets eat.

IL PENSEROSO

105

Ere the first cock his matin rings.

IIO

115

4

5

one speaker another

garments 2 Originally influence meant the power of the stars over human affairs. 3 cf. Epithalamion, 11. 25 ff. cf. Jonson's lines on Shakespeare, ll. 36-7 5 aid 6 foolish

Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight,
And therefore to our weaker view
O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue;
Black, but such as in esteem

Prince Memnon's sister1 might beseem,
Or that starred Ethiop queen2 that strove
To set her beauty's praise above

The sea nymphs, and their powers offended.
Yet thou art higher far descended:
Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore
To solitary Saturn bore;

His daughter she (in Saturn's reign
Such mixture was not held a stain).
Oft in glimmering bowers and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,3
Flowing with majestic train,

And sable stole of cypress lawn 4
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,

15

20

25

30

35

To bless the doors from nightly harm. Or let my lamp at midnight hour

85

Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Where I may oft out-watch the Bear,
With thrice-great Hermes; or unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to unfold
What worlds or what vast regions hold
The immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook;
And of those demons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or underground,
Whose power hath a true consent
With planet or with element.
Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes', or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine,
Or what (though rare) of later age
Ennobled hath the buskined1 stage.
But, O sad Virgin! that thy power
Might raise Musæus from his bower;
Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes as, warbled to the string,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,
And made Hell grant what love did seek;
Or call up him that left half-told
The story of Cambuscan bold,
Of Camball, and of Algarsife,
And who had Canace to wife,
That owned the virtuous2 ring and glass,
And of the wondrous horse of brass

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