Il Penseroso continued.]

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,

Most musical, most melancholy!

To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon,

Line 61.

Like one that had been led astray
Through the heaven's wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,

Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine.

Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing

Line 97.

Such notes as, warbled to the string,

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek. Line 105.

Or call up him that left half told

Nor war or battle's sound

Was heard the world around.

Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 53.

Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold.

Line 135.

Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb,

No voice or hideous hum

Line 172.

Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell

Inspires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic

The labour of an age in piled stones?

Or that his hallow'd relics should be hid

Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame.

Epitaph on Shakespeare. Line 4.

And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

Line 15.

What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,

Of Attic taste.

Sonnet to Mr. Lawrence.

Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day.

To the Nightingale.

As ever in my great task-master's eye.

On his being arrived to the Age of Twenty-Three. The great Emathian conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the ground.

When the Assault was intended to the City.

That old man eloquent.

To the Lady Margaret Ley.

That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp. On the Detraction which followed upon my Writing Certain Treatises.

License they mean when they cry liberty.

On the Same.

Peace hath her victories

No less renown'd than war.

To the Lord General Cromwell.
Thousands at His bidding speed,

And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.

On his Blindness.

In mirth, that after no repenting draws.

To Cyriac Skinner.

For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains. And disapproves that care, though wise in show, That with superfluous burden loads the day, And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

Yet I argue not

Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope,; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
To Cyriac Skinner.

Of which all Europe rings from side to side.

But O, as to embrace me she inclin'd,

Ibid.

I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my

night.

On his Deceased Wife.

Have hung

My dank and dropping weeds

To the stern god of sea.

Translation of Horace. Book i. Ode 5.

Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.

The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.

A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him. The Reason of Church Government. Int. Book ii.

By labour and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after times, as they should not willingly let it die.

Ibid.

Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.

He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem. Apology for Smectymnibus.

fees.

Ibid.

His words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command. Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing Tractate of Education. I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but strait conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect, and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.

Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.

In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.

Ibid.

Attic tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument.

Ibid.

As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself. Areopagitica.