HOPE. PRIMEVAL Hope, the Aonian Muses say, When Peace and Mercy, banished from the plain, CAMPBELL. ASTREA. Now when the world with sin 'gan to abound, 'Mongst wicked men, in whom no truth she found, Returned to heaven, whence she derived her race; Where she hath now an everlasting place, 'Mongst those twelve Signs, which nightly we do see The heaven's bright-shining baldric * to enchase, And is the Virgin, sixth in her degree, And next herself her righteous balance hanging be. *Baldric, belt, girdle, the Zodiac. SPENSER. THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE. ALL crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail, Returning Justice lift aloft her scale, Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend. POPE. YEA, Truth and Justice then Will down return to men, Orbed in a rainbow, and, like glories wearing, Throned in celestial sheen, With radiant feet the tissued clouds down-steering, And Heaven, as at some festival, Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall. MILTON. ECHO AND NARCISSUS. SONG. SWEET Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen Within thy aëry shell, By slow Meander's margent green, And in the violet-embroidered vale, Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; O, if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave, Tell me but where, Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere, So mayst thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies. MILTON. [Milton has imitated the story of Narcissus in the account which he makes Eve give of the first sight of herself, reflected in the fountain.] THAT day I oft remember when from sleep As I bent down to look, just opposite A shape within the watery gleam appeared, MILTON. NARCISSUS. [The author, Thomas Blacklock, was blind from the age of six months, in consequence of small pox. Yet he paints flowers with artist-like precision.] LET long-lived pansies here their scents bestow, In yellow glory let the crocus shine, TO A MIRROR. FROM GARCILASO DE LA VEGA. SINCE still my passion-pleading strains Reflect on her the thrilling beam PACTOLUS. AND round about the same her yellow hair, Framéd in goldsmith's forge with cunning hand. The which Pactolus, with his waters sheer, Throws forth upon the rivage round about him near. SPENSER. |