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While Cynthia1 checks her dragon yoke,
Gently o'er the accustom'd oak :

Sweet bird, that shun'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!
Thee, chauntress, oft, the woods among,
I woo, to hear thy even-song;
And, missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heaven's wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft, on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off Curfeu sound.
Over some wide-water'd shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar:
Or, if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will fit,
Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom;

Far from all resort of mirth,
Save the cricket on the hearth,
Or the belman's 2 drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly harm.
Or let my lamp, at midnight hour,
Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Where I may oft out-watch the Bear,
With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to unfold
What worlds or what vast regions hold

1 Cynthia: the moon. tered blessings as he passed.

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'Belman: ' the watchman, who anciently mut

The immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook :
And of those demons1 that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground,
Whose power hath a true consent
With planet, or with element.
Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In scepter'd pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes, 2 or Pelops' line,3
Or the tale of Troy divine;
Or what (though rare) of later age
Ennobled hath the buskin'd stage.

But, O sad Virgin, that thy power
Might raise Musæus from his bower!
Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes, as, warbled to the string,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,

And made Hell grant what love did seek!
Or call up him 5 that left half-told

The story of Cambuscan bold,
Of Camball, and of Algarsife,

And who had Canace to wife,

That own'd the virtuous ring and glass;
And of the wond'rous horse of brass
On which the Tartar king did ride:
And if aught else great bards beside
In sage and solemn tunes have sung,
Of turneys, and of trophies hung,
Of forests, and enchantments drear,

Where more is meant than meets the ear.

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''Demons:' fallen angels permitted to rule over the elements (according to the scholastic belief) till the day of judgment. 2Thebes:'Eschylus' 'Seven before Thebes.'. 36 'Pelops' line:' the Electra of Sophocles, &c.— ♦ 'Musæus:' an ancient Greek poet, of a grave and solemn cast of genius.— Him:' Chaucer in his' Squire's Tale.'

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• Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career
Till civil-suited1 Morn appear;

Not trick'd and frounc'd2 as she was wont
With the Attic boy to hunt,
But kercheft in a comely cloud,
While rocking winds are piping loud,
Or usher'd with a shower still,
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves,

With minute drops from off the eaves.
And, when the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, goddess, bring
To arched walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown, that Sylvan3 loves,
Of pine, or monumental oak,

Where the rude axe, with heaved stroke,
Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt
There in close covert by some brook,
Where no profaner eye may look,
Hide me from day's garish eye,
While the bee with honied thigh,

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That at her flowery work doth sing,
And the waters murmuring,

With such consort as they keep,
Entice the dewy-feather'd Sleep;
And let some strange mysterious Dream

Wave at his wings in aery stream

Of lively portraiture display'd,

Softly on my eye-lids laid.

And, as I wake, sweet music breathe

Above, about, or underneath,

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Civil:' grave, decent.-2 Frounc'd:' curled.-'Sylvan:' the god of

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Sent by some Spirit to mortals good,
Or the unseen Genius of the wood.
But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloisters pale,
And love the high-embowed1 roof,
With antic pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light:
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full-voic'd quire below,
In service high, and anthems clear,

As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,

And bring all heaven before mine eyes.
And may at last my weary age
Find out the peaceful hermitage,
The hairy gown and mossy cell,
Where I may sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth shew,
And every herb that sips the dew;
Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.

These pleasures, Melancholy, give,
And I with thee will choose to live.

1 'High-embowed:' vaulted.-2' Storied :' painted with stories.

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SONNETS.

I. TO THE NIGHTINGALE.

O NIGHTINGALE, that on yon bloomy spray

Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still; Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill, While the jolly Hours lead on propitious May. Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day,

First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, Portend success in love; O, if Jove's will Have link'd that amorous power to thy soft lay, Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate

Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh; As thou from year to year hast sung too late For my relief, yet hadst no reason why: Whether the Muse, or Love, call thee his mate, Both them I serve, and of their train am I.

II.

DONNA leggiadra, il cui bel nome honora
L'herbosa val di Rheno, e il nobil varco;
Bene è colui d'ogni valore scarco,
Qual tuo spirto gentil non innamora ;
Che dolcemente mostra si di fuora

De sui atti soavi giamai parco,

E i don', che son d'amor saette ed arco,
La onde l'alta tua virtu s'infiora.

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