LXXXI Doth then the world go thus, doth ail thus move? Is this the justice which on earth we find? Is this that firm decree which all doth bind? Are these your influences, Powers above? Those souls which vice's moody mists most blind, Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove; Ah! if a Providence doth sway this all Why should best minds groan under most distress? Heavens! hinder, stop this fate; or gran. a time LXXXII THE WORLD'S WAY Tired with all these, for restful death I cry As, to behold desert a beggar born, And gilded honour shamefully misplaced, And captive Good attending captain Ill: -Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my Love alone. W. Shakespeare LXXXIII A WISH Happy were he could finish forth his fate Of worldly folk, there should he sleep secure ; Then wake again, and yield God ever praise; And change of holy thoughts to make him merry : Who, when he dies, his tomb might be the bush R. Devereux, Earl of Essex LXXXIV SAINT JOHN BAPTIST The last and greatest Herald of Heaven's King His food was locusts, and what there doth spring, 'There burst he forth: All ye whose hopes rely Only the echoes, which he made relent, Ehe Golden Treasury Book Second LXXXV ODE ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY This is the month, and this the happy morn And with His Father work us a perpetual peace. That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable, Wherewith He wont at Heaven's high council-table He laid aside; and, here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. Say, heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain To welcome Him to this His new abode, Now while the heaven, by the sun's team untrod, See how from far, upon the eastern road, And lay it lowly at His blessed feet; Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, From out His secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire THE HYMN It was the winter wild While the heaven-born Child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature in awe to Him Had doff'd her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathize: It was no season then for her To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour. Only with speeches fair She woos the gentle air To hide her guilty front with innocent snow; Pollute with sinful blame, The saintly veil of maiden white to throw ; Confounded, that her Maker's eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities But He, her fears to cease, Sent down the meek-eyed Peace; She, crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding Down through the turning sphere, His ready harbinger, With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing: And waving wide her myrtle wand, She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. No war, or battle's sound Was heard the world around: The idle spear and shield were high uphung ; Unstain'd with hostile blood; The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. But peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began : The winds, with wonder whist, Smoothly the waters kist Whispering new joys to the mild oceán Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charniéd wave. The stars, with deep amaze, Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze, Bending one way their precious influence; And will not take their flight For all the morning light, Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence; But in their glimmering orbs did glow Until their Lord Himself bespake, and bid them go. And though the shady gloom Had given day her room, The sun himself withheld his wonted speed, And hid his head for shame, As his inferior flame The new-enlighten'd world no more should need; He saw a greater Sun appear Than his bright throne, or burning axletree could bear. The shepherds on the lawn Or ere the point of dawn Sate simply chatting in a rustic row; Full little thought they than That the mighty Pan Was kindly come to live with them below: Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep :- When such music sweet Their hearts and ears did greet |