Oh, what have kings to answer for Before that awful throne, When thousand deaths for vengeance cry, And ghosts accusing groan ! Like blazing comets in the sky Like these did Gwin and Gordred meet, Down from the brow unto the breast Gwin fell the Sons of Norway fled, The rest did fill the vale of death For them the eagles strive. The river Dorman rolled their blood Into the northern sea; Who mourned his sons, and overwhelmed The pleasant south country. AN IMITATION OF SPENSER. X GOLDE OLDEN Apollo, that through heaven wide a In lucent words my darkling voices dight, And wash my earthly mind in thy clear streams, All while the jocund Hours in thy train Scatter their fancies at thy poet's feet; And, when thou yield'st to Night thy wide domain, For brutish Pan in vain might thee assay With tinkling sounds to dash thy nervous verse, Sound without sense; yet in his rude affray (For Ignorance is folly's leasing nurse, в a в b And love of Folly needs none other's curse) Midas the praise hath gained of lengthened ears, For which himself might deem him ne'er the worse To sit in council with his modern peers, And judge of tinkling rhymes and elegances terse. And thou, Mercurius, that with winged bow Dost mount aloft into the yielding sky, And through heaven's halls thy airy flight dost throw, Entering with holy feet to where on high Jove weighs the counsel of futurity ; Then laden with eternal fate, dost go Down, like a fallen star, from Autumn sky, If thou arrivest at the sandy shore Where nought but envious hissing adders dwell, Thy golden rod thrown on the dusty floor, Can charm to harmony with potent spell; Such is sweet Eloquence, that does dispel Envy and Hate that thirst for human gore; And cause in sweet society to dwell Vile savage minds that lurk in lonely cell. O Mercury, assist my labouring sense That round the circle of the world would fly, As the winged eagle scorns the towery fence Of Alpine hills round his high aëry, And searches through the corners of the sky, Sports in the clouds to hear the thunder's sound, And see the winged lightnings as they fly; Then, bosomed in an amber cloud, around Plumes his wide wings, and seeks (Sol's) palace high. And thou, O warrior maid invincible, Armed with the terrors of Almighty Jove, Pallas, Minerva, maiden terrible, Lov'st thou to walk the peaceful solemn grove, In solemn gloom of branches interwove? Or bear'st thy ægis o'er the burning field The weary wanderer through the desert rove? Or does the afflicted man thy heavenly bosom move? BLIND-MAN'S BUFF. WHE WHEN silver snow decks Susan's clothes, The blushing bank is all my care, With hearth so red, and walls so fair. The well-washed stools, a circling row, Jenny her silken kerchief folds, And blear-eyed Will the black lot holds. |