The Penguin Book of English Verse

by Paul Keegan

  Of all thy dues be done, and none left out,

  Ere the blabbing Eastern scout,

  The nice Morn on th’ Indian steep

  From her cabin’d loop hole peep,

  And to the tel-tale Sun discry

  Our conceal’d Solemnity.

  Com, knit hands, and beat the ground,

  In a light fantastick round.

  THOMAS RANDOLPH A Gratulatory to Mr Ben. Johnson for his Adopting of Him to be his Son 1638

  I was not borne to Helicon, nor dare

  Presume to thinke my selfe a Muses heire.

  I have no title to Parnassus hill,

  Nor any acre of it by the will

  Of a dead Ancestour, nor could I bee

  Ought but a tenant unto Poëtrie,

  But thy Adoption quits me of all feare,

  And makes me challenge a childs portion there.

  I am a kinne to Hero’s being thine,

  And part of my alliance is divine.

  Orpheus, Musœus, Homer too; beside

  Thy Brothers by the Roman Mothers side;

  As Ovid, Virgil, and the Latine Lyre,

  That is so like thy Horace; the whole quire

  Of Poets are by thy Adoption, all

  My uncles; thou hast given me pow’r to call

  Phœbus himselfe my grandsire, by this graunt

  Each sister of the nine is made my Aunt.

  Go you that reckon from a large descent

  Your lineall Honours, and are well content

  To glory in the age of your great name,

  Though on a Herralds faith you build the same:

  I do not envy you, nor thinke you blest

  Though you may beare a Gorgon on your Crest

  By direct line from Perseus; I will boast

  No farther then my Father; that’s the most

  I can, or should be proud of; and I were

  Unworthy his adoption, if that here

  I should be dully modest; boast I must

  Being sonne of his Adoption, not his lust.

  And to say truth, that which is best in mee

  May call you father, ’twas begot by thee.

  Have I a sparke of that cœlestiall flame

  Within me, I confesse I stole the same

  Prometheus like, from thee; and may I feed

  His vulture, when I dare deny the deed.

  Many more moones thou hast, that shine by night,

  All Bankrups, wer’t not for a borrow’d light;

  Yet can forsweare it; I the debt confesse,

  And thinke my reputation ne’re the lesse.

  For Father let me be resolv’d by you;

  Is’t a disparagement from rich Peru

  To ravish gold; or theft, for wealthy Ore

  To ransack Tagus, or Pactolus shore?

  Or does he wrong Alcinous, that for want

  Doth take from him a sprig or two, to plant

  A lesser Orchard? sure it cannot bee:

  Nor is it theft to steale some flames from thee.

  Grant this, and I’le cry guilty, as I am,

  And pay a filiall reverence to thy name.

  For when my Muse upon obedient knees,

  Askes not a Fathers blessing, let her leese

  The fame of this Adoption; ’tis a curse

  I wish her ’cause I cannot thinke a worse.

  And here, as Piety bids me, I intreat

  Phœbus to lend thee some of his own heat,

  To cure thy Palsie; else I will complaine

  He has no skill in hearbs; Poets in vaine

  Make him the God of Physicke; ’twere his praise

  To make thee as immortall as thy Baies;

  As his owne Daphne; ’twere a shame to see

  The God, not love his Preist, more then his Tree.

  But if heaven take thee, envying us thy Lyre,

  ’Tis to pen Anthems for an Angels quire.

  SIR JOHN SUCKLING Song

  Why so pale and wan fond Lover?

  Prithee why so pale?

  Will, when looking well can’t move her,

  Looking ill prevaile?

  Prithee why so pale?

  Why so dull and mute young Sinner?

  Prithee why so mute?

  Will, when speaking well can’t win her,

  Saying nothing doo’t?

  Prithee why so mute?

  Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move,

  This cannot take her;

  If of her selfe shee will not Love,

  Nothing can make her,

  The Devill take her.

  JOHN MILTON Lycidas

  In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunatly drown’d in his Passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637. And by occasion foretels the ruine of our corrupted Clergy then in their height.

  Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more

  Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never-sear,

  I com to pluck your Berries harsh and crude,

  And with forc’d fingers rude,

  Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

  Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear,

  Compels me to disturb your season due:

  For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime

  Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer:

  Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew

  Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.

  He must not flote upon his watry bear

  Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,

  Without the meed of som melodious tear.

  Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well,

  That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring,

  Begin, and somwhat loudly sweep the string.

  Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse,

  So may som gentle Muse

  With lucky words favour my destin’d Um,

  And as he passes turn,

  And bid fair peace be to my sable shrowd.

  For we were nurst upon the self-same hill,

  Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill.

  Together both, ere the high Lawns appear’d

  Under the opening eye-lids of the morn,

  We drove a field, and both together heard

  What time the Gray-fly winds her sultry horn,

  Batt’ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night,

  Oft till the Star that rose, at Ev’ning, bright

  Toward Heav’ns descent had slop’d his westering wheel.

  Mean while the Rural ditties were not mute,

  Temper’d to th’Oaten Flute,

  Rough Satyrs danc’d, and Fauns with clov’n heel,

  From the glad sound would not be absent long,

  And old Damœtas lov’d to hear our song.

  But O the heavy change, now thou art gon,

  Now thou art gon, and never must return!

  Thee Shepherd, thee the Woods, and desert Caves,

  With wilde Thyme and the gadding Vine o’regrown,

  And all their echoes mourn.

  The Willows, and the Hazle Copses green,

  Shall now no more be seen,

  Fanning their joyous Leaves to thy soft layes.

  As killing as the Canker to the Rose,

  Or Taint-worm to the weanling Herds that graze,

  Or Frost to Flowers, that their gay wardrop wear,

  When first the White thorn blows;

  Such, Lycidas, thy loss to Shepherds ear.

  Where were ye Nymphs when the remorseless deep

  Clos’d o’re the head of your lov’d Lycidas?

  For neither were ye playing on the steep,

  Where your old Bards, the famous Druids ly,

  Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,

  Nor yet where Deva spreads her wisard stream:

  Ay me, I fondly dream!

  Had ye bin there – for what could that have don?

  What could the Muse her self that Orpheus bore,

  Th
e Muse her self, for her inchanting son

  Whom Universal nature did lament,

  When by the rout that made the hideous roar,

  His goary visage down the stream was sent,

  Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore.

  Alas! What boots it with uncessant care

  To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade,

  And strictly meditate the thankles Muse,

  Were it not better don as others use,

  To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,

  Or with the tangles of Neœra’s hair?

  Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise

  (That last infirmity of Noble mind)

  To scorn delights, and live laborious dayes;

  But the fair Guerdon when we hope to find,

  And think to burst out into sudden blaze,

  Comes the blind Fury with th’abhorred shears,

  And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise,

  Phœbus repli’d, and touch’d my trembling ears;

  Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,

  Nor in the glistering foil

  Set off to th’world, nor in broad rumour lies,

  But lives and spreds aloft by those pure eyes,

  And perfet witnes of all-judging Jove;

  As he pronounces lastly on each deed,

  Of so much fame in Heav’n expect thy meed.

  O Fountain Arethuse, and thou honour’d floud,

  Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown’d with vocall reeds,

  That strain I heard was of a higher mood:

  But now my Oate proceeds,

  And listens to the Herald of the Sea

  That came in Neptune’s plea,

  He ask’d the Waves, and ask’d the Fellon winds,

  What hard mishap hath doom’d this gentle swain?

  And question’d every gust of rugged wings

  That blows from off each beaked Promontory;

  They knew not of his story,

  And sage Hippotades their answer brings,

  That not a blast was from his dungeon stray’d,

  The Ayr was calm, and on the level brine,

  Sleek Panope with all her sisters play’d.

  It was that fatall and perfidious Bark

  Built in th’eclipse, and rigg’d with curses dark,

  That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.

  Next Camus, reverend Sire, went footing slow,

  His Mantle hairy, and his Bonnet sedge,

  Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge

  Like to that sanguine flower inscrib’d with woe.

  Ah! Who hath reft (quoth he) my dearest pledge?

  Last came, and last did go,

  The Pilot of the Galilean lake,

  Two massy Keyes he bore of metals twain,

  (The Golden opes, the Iron shuts amain)

  He shook his Miter’d locks, and stern bespake,

  How well could I have spar’d for thee young swain,

  Anow of such as for their bellies sake,

  Creep and intrude, and climb into the fold?

  Of other care they little reck’ning make,

  Then how to scramble at the shearers feast,

  And shove away the worthy bidden guest;

  Blind mouthes! that scarce themselves know how to hold

  A Sheep-hook, or have learn’d ought els the least

  That to the faithfull Herdmans art belongs!

  What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;

  And when they list, their lean and flashy songs

  Grate on their scrannel Pipes of wretched straw,

  The hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed,

  But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,

  Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:

  Besides what the grim Woolf with privy paw

  Daily devours apace, and nothing sed,

  But that two-handed engine at the door,

  Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.

  Return Alpheus, the dread voice is past,

  That shrunk thy streams; Return Sicilian Muse,

  And call the Vales, and bid them hither cast

  Their Bels, and Flourets of a thousand hues.

  Ye valleys low where the milde whispers use,

  Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,

  On whose fresh lap the swart Star sparely looks,

  Throw hither all your quaint enameld eyes,

  That on the green terf suck the honied showres,

  And purple all the ground with vernal flowres.

  Bring the rathe Primrose that forsaken dies,

  The tufted Crow-toe, and pale Gessamine,

  The white Pink, and the Pansie freakt with jeat,

  The glowing Violet,

  The Musk-rose, and the well attir’d Woodbine,

  With Cowslips wan that hang the pensive hed,

  And every flower that sad embroidery wears:

  Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed,

  And Daffadillies fill their cups with tears,

  To strew the Laureat Herse where Lycid lies.

  For so to interpose a little ease,

  Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.

  Ay me! Whilst thee the shores, and sounding Seas

  Wash far away, where ere thy bones are hurld,

  Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,

  Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide

  Visit’st the bottom of the monstrous world;

  Or whether thou to our moist vows deny’d,

  Sleep’st by the fable of Bellerus old,

  Where the great vision of the guarded Mount

  Looks toward Namancos and Bayona’s hold;

  Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth.

  And, O ye Dolphins, waft the haples youth.

  Weep no more, woful Shepherds weep no more,

  For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,

  Sunk though he be beneath the watry floar,

  So sinks the day-star in the Ocean bed,

  And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

  And tricks his beams, and with new spangled Ore,

  Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:

  So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,

  Through the dear might of him that walk’d the waves;

  Where other groves, and other streams along,

  With Nectar pure his oozy Locks he laves,

  And hears the unexpressive nuptiall Song,

  In the blest Kingdoms meek of joy and love.

  There entertain him all the Saints above,

  In solemn troops, and sweet Societies

  That sing, and singing in their glory move,

  And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.