And round my bier ye come to weep,
Let one, most loving of you all,
Say, "Not a tear must o'er her fall,
'He giveth his beloved sleep!
O SACRED Providence, who, from end to end,
Strongly and sweetly movest! shall I write,
And not of thee, through whom my fingers bend
To hold my quill? Shall they not do thee right?
Of all the creatures, both in sea and land,
Only to man thou hast made known thy ways,
And
put the pen alone into his hand,
And made him secretary of thy praise.
Beasts fain would sing; birds ditty to their notes;
Trees would be tuning on their native lute
To thy renown: but all their hands and throats
Are brought to man, while they are lame and mute.
Man is the world's high priest; he doth present
The sacrifice for all; while they below
Unto the service mutter an assent,
Such as springs use that fall, and winds that blow.
Tempests are calm to thee; they know thy hand,
And hold it fast, as children do their father's,
Which cry and follow. Thou hast made poor sand
Check the proud sea, even when it swells and gathers.
How finely dost thou times and seasons spin,
And make a twist checkered with night and day!
Which, as it lengthens, winds, and winds us in,
As bowls go on, but turning all the way.
Each creature hath a wisdom for his good:
The pigeons feed their tender offspring, crying,
When they are callow; but withdraw their food,
When they are fledged, that need may teach 'em
flying.
Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise
Their master's flower, but leave it, having done,
As fair as ever, and as fit to use:
So both the flower doth stay, and honey run.
Who hath the virtue to express the rare
And curious virtues both of herbs and stones?
Is there an herb for that? O, that thy care
Would show a root that gives expressions!
E'en poisons praise thee. Should a thing be lost?
Should creatures want, for want of heed, their due?
Since where are poisons, antidotes are most;
The help stands close, and keeps the fear in view.
The sea, which seems to stop the traveller,
Is by a ship the speedier passage made;
The winds, who think they rule the mariner,
Are ruled by him, and taught to serve his trade.
And as thy house is full, so I adore
Thy curious art in marshalling thy goods.
The hills with health abound; the vales, with store; The south, with marble; north, with furs and woods.
All countries have enough to serve their need:
If they seek fine things, thou dost make them run
For their offence; and then dost turn their speed
To be commerce and trade from sun to sun.
Sometimes thou dost divide thy gifts to man,
Sometimes unite. The Indian nut alone
Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can,
Boat, cable, sail and needle, all in one.
But who hath praise enough? Nay, who hath any ?
None can express thy works, but he that knows them;
And none can know thy works, which are so many
And so complete, but only he that owns them.
All things that are, though they have several ways,
Yet in their being join with one advice
To honor thee; and so I give thee praise
In all my other hymns, but in this twice.
Each thing that is, although in use and name
go for one,
hath many ways in store
To honor thee and so each hymn thy fame
Extolleth many ways; yet this, one more.
ARETHUSA arose
From her couch of snows,
In the Acroceraunian mountains,
From cloud and from crag,
With many a jag,
Shepherding her bright fountains.
She leapt down the rocks
With her rainbow locks
Streaming among the streams;
Her steps paved with green
The downward ravine,
Which slopes to the western gleams:
And gliding and springing
She went, ever singing
In murmurs as soft as sleep;
The Earth seemed to love her,
And Heaven smiled above her,
As she lingered towards the deep.
Then Alpheus bold,
On his glacier cold,
With his trident the mountains strook ;
And opened a chasm
In the rocks; - with the spasm
All Erymanthus shook.
And the black south wind
It concealed behind
The urns of the silent snow,
And earthquake and thunder
Did rend in sunder
The bars of the springs below:
The beard and the hair
Of the river-god were
Seen through the torrent's sweep,
As he followed the light
Of the fleet nymph's flight
To the brink of the Dorian deep.
"O, save me! O, guide me,
And bid the deep hide me!
For he grasps me now by the hair!"
The loud Ocean heard,
To its blue depth stirred,
And divided at her prayer;
And under the water
The Earth's white daughter Fled like a sunny beam;
Behind her descended
Her billows unblended
With the brackish Dorian stream.
Like a gloomy stain
On the emerald main,
Alpheus rushed behind,-
As an eagle pursuing
A dove to its ruin
Down the streams of the cloudy wind.
Under the bowers
Where the Ocean Powers
Sit on their pearlèd thrones, -
Through the coral woods
Of the weltering floods,
Over heaps of unvalued stones,
Through the dim beams
Which amid the streams
Weave a net-work of colored light,
And under the caves
Where the shadowy waves
Are as green as the forest's night:
Outspeeding the shark,
And the sword-fish dark,
Under the ocean-foam,
And up through the rifts
Of the mountain clifts
They passed to their Dorian home.
And now from their fountains
In Enna's mountains,
Down one vale where the morning basks,
Like friends once parted,
Grown single-hearted,
They ply their watery tasks.
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