Page images
PDF
EPUB

13 For great thy mercy is tow'rd me, And thou hast freed my soul, Ev'n from the lowest hell set free,

From deepest darkness foul.

14 O God, the proud against me rise,

And violent men are met

To seek my life, and in their eyes

No fear of thee have set.

15 But thou, Lord, art the God most mild,

Readiest thy grace to shew,

Slow to be angry, and art styl'd

Most merciful, most true.

16 O turn to me thy face at length, And me have mercy on,

Unto thy servant give thy strength,

And save thy handmaid's son. 17 Some sign of good to me afford,

And let my foes then see,

And be asham'd, because thou, Lord,
Dost help and comfort me.

45

50

55

60

PSALM LXXXVII.

1 AMONG the holy mountains high

Is his foundation fast,
There seated is his sanctuary,
His temple there is plac'd.

2 Sion's fair gates the Lord loves more
Than all the dwellings fair

Of Jacob's land, though there be store,
And all within his care.

[blocks in formation]

5

3 City of God, most glorious things

Of thee abroad are spoke;

4 I mention Egypt, where proud kings Did our forefathers yoke.

I mention Babel to my friends,

Philistia full of scorn,

And Tyre with Ethiop's utmost ends,

Lo this man there was born:

5 But twice that praise shall in our ear Be said of Sion last,

This and this man was born in her,

High God shall fix her fast.

6 The Lord shall write it in a scroll That ne'er shall be out-worn,

When he the nations doth inroll,

That this man there was born.

7 Both they who sing, and they who dance,
With sacred songs are there,

In thee fresh brooks, and soft streams glance,
And all my fountains clear.

PSALM LXXXVIII.

1 LORD God, that dost me save and keep, All day to thee I cry;

And all night long before thee weep,

Before thee prostrate lie.

2 Into thy presence let my pray'r

With sighs devout ascend,

And to my cries that ceaseless are,

Thine ear with favour bend,

10

15

20

25

5

3 For cloy'd with woes and trouble store
Surcharg'd my soul doth lie,
My life at death's uncheerful door
Unto the grave draws nigh.

4 Reckon'd I am with them that

Down to the dismal pit,

I am a man, but weak alas,

And for that name unfit.

pass

5 From life discharg'd and parted quite
Among the dead to sleep,

And like the slain in bloody fight
That in the grave lie deep.

Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dost never more regard,

Them from thy hand deliver'd o'er
Death's hideous house hath barr'd.

6 Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,

In horrid deeps to mourn.

7 Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves, Full sore doth press on me;

a Thou break'st upon me all thy waves,

a And all thy waves break me.

8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange, And mak'st me odious,

Me to them odious, for they change,

And I here pent up thus.

[blocks in formation]

* Heb. A man without manly strength. a The Heb. bears both.

35

9.-trouble store] So edition Fenton, read sore. T. War 1678. Tonson, Tickell, and ton.

9 Through sorrow, and affliction great, Mine eye grows dim and dead, Lord, all the day I thee intreat,

My hands to thee I spread.

10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead,

Shall the deceas'd arise

And praise thee from their loathsome bed

With pale and hollow eyes

?

11 Shall they thy loving kindness tell
On whom the grave hath hold,
Or they who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?

12 In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known,

Thy justice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion?

13 But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,

Ere yet my life be spent,

And up to thee my pray'r doth hie,

Each morn, and thee prevent.

14 Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake, And hide thy face from me?

15 That am already bruis'd, and shake

With terror sent from thee?

Bruis'd, and afflicted, and so low

As ready to expire,

While I thy terrors undergo

Astonish'd with thine ire.

16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow, Thy threat'nings cut me through:

Heb. Præ Concussione.

40

45

50

55

60

65

17 All day they round about me go, Like waves they me pursue.

18 Lover and friend thou hast remov'd,
And sever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have lov'd,
And as in darkness are.

A Paraphrase on PSALM CXIV.*

70

This and the following Psalm were done by the Author at fifteen years old.

WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son

After long toil their liberty had won,

5

And pass'd from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shewn,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.
The high, huge-bellied mountains skip like rams
Amongst their ewes, the little hills like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? And why skipp'd the mountains?
Why turned Jordan tow'rd his crystal fountains?

*This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest performances. The first he afterwards translated into Greek. In the last are some very poetical expressions, The golden-tressed sun, God's thunder-clasping hand, the moon's spangled sisters bright, above the reach of mortal eye, &c.

10

I will here throw together some of the most striking stanzas in Milton's Psalms. T. Warton.

13. Why fled the ocean? And why skipp'd the mountains ?] The original is weakened. The question should have been asked by an address, or an appeal, to the sea and mountains. T. Warton.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »