She holds that day's pleasure best O'er that darkness, whence is thrust She her throne makes reason climb, Her pure thoughts to Heaven fly: And her love she vows to me. TO CASTARA, IN A TRANCE. Forsake me not so soon; Castara, stay, I'll fill the canvas with my expiring breath, And sail with thee o'er the vast main of Death. .Some cherubin thus, as we pass, shall play: Shall smooth her wrinkled brow; the winds shall sleep, Every ungentle rock shall melt away, The sirens sing to please, not to betray; The indulgent sky shall smile; each starry quire While Love, the pilot, steers his course so even TO CASTARA, UPON THE DEATH OF A LADY. Castara weep not, tho' her tomb appear Nor grieve this crystal stream so soon did fall The banks she past, so that each neighbour field The asp's slow venom, trembling she should be The flowers instruct our sorrows. Come, then, all And with her to increase death's pomp, decay. Is fallen, how can ye stand? How can the night AGAINST THEM WHO LAY UNCHASTITY TO THE They meet but with unwholesome springs, Who ever dare Affirm no woman chaste and fair. Go, cure your fevers; and you'll say The dog-days scorch not all the year: In copper mines no longer stay, But travel to the west, and there The right ones see, And grant all gold's not alchemy. What madman, 'cause the glow-worm's flame From guilt, damn'd to the bondage be? Nor grieve, Castara, though t'were frail; 'Tis majesty to rule alone. TO CASTARA. OF TRUE DELIGHT. Why doth the ear so tempt the voice As soon as I my ear obey, The echo's lost even with the breath; I'm left with no more taste than death. Be curious in pursuit of eyes Quick fancy! how it mocks delight! When I have sold my heart to lust, The rose yields her sweet blandishment When early in the spring she breathes. But winter comes, and makes each flower Our senses, like false glasses, show NOX NOCTI INDICAT SCIENTIAM. When I survey the bright Celestial sphere: So rich with jewels hung, that night My soul her wings doth spread The Almighty's mysteries to read For the bright firmament Shoots forth no flame So silent, but is eloquent In speaking the Creator's name. No unregarded star Contracts its light, Into so small a character, Remov'd far from our human sight, But if we steadfast look We shall discern In it as in some holy book, How man may heavenly knowledge learn. It tells the conqueror, That far-stretched power, Which his proud dangers traffic for, Is but the triumph of an hour. That from the farthest north Some nation may Yet undiscovered issue forth, And o'er his new got conquest sway. Some nation yet shut in With hills of ice, May be let out to scourge his sin, And then they likewise shall For as yourselves your empires fall, Thus those celestial fires, Though seeming mute, The fallacy of our desires For they have watched since first And found sin in itself accursed, |