No More Learning

The f>roof beyond all other force or skill.
Our sins endanger, and shall one day kill.
How neai- they failed, and in thy sudden fall,
At oiHH' assayed to overturn us all ?
10



Digitized by VjOOQIC



146 THE POEMS

Our British fury, struggling to be free,
Hurried thy horses, while they hurried thee ;
When thou hadst almost quit thy mortal Ciires,
And soiled in dust thy crown of silver hairs.

Let this one sorrow interweave among
The other glories of our yearly song ;
Like skilful looms, which through the costly

thread
Of purling ore, a shining wave do shed,
So shall the tears we on past grief employ,
Still as they trickle, glitter in our joy ;
So with more modesty we may be true,
And speak, as of the dead, the praises due,
While impious men, deceived with pleasure

short,
'On their own hopes shall find the fall retort.

But the poor beasts, wanting their ^oble guide,
[What could they more ? ] shrunk guiltily aside :
First winged fear transports them far away,
And leaden sorrow then their flight did stay.
See how they both their towering crests abate,
And the green grass and their known mangers

hate,
Nor through wide nostrils snuff the wanton air,
Nor their round hoofs or curled manes compare ;
With wandering eyes and restless ears they

stood,
And with slirill n*i};liiiigs asked him of the wood.



Digitized by VjOOQIC



OP MARVELL. 147

Thou, Cromwell, falling, not a stupid tree^
Or rock so savage, but it mourned for thee ;
And all about was heard a panic groan,
As if that nature's self were overthrown.
It seemed the earth did from the centre tear.
It seemed the sun was fallen from his sphere :
Justice obstructed lay, and reason fooled,
Courage disheartened, and religion cooled ;
A dismal silence through the palace went,
And then loud shrieks the vaulted marbles rent :
Such as the dying chorus sings by turns,
And to deaf seas and ruthless tempests mourns.
When now they sink, and now the plundering

streams,
Break up each deck and rip the open seams.

But thee triumphant, hence, the fiery car
And fiery steeds had borne out of the war,
From the low world and thankless men, above
Unto the kingdom blest of peace and love :
We only mourned ourselves in thine ascent,
Whom thou hadst left beneath with mantle rent,
For all delight of life thou then didst lose.
When to command thou didst thyself depose,
Resigning up thy privacy so dear.
To turn the headstrong people's charioteer ;
For to be Cromwell was a greater thing.
Than aught below, or yet above, a king :
Therefore thou rather didst thyself depress,
Yielding to rule, because it made thee less.



Digitized by VjOOQIC



148 TUB POEMS

For neither didst thou from the first apply
Thy sober spirit unto things too high ;
But in tin'ne own fields exereisedst long
A healthful mind within a body strong.
Till at the seventh time, thou in the skies,
As a small cloud, like a man's hand didst rise ;
Then did thick mists and winds the air deform,
And down at last thou pouredst the fertile i>iovm
Which to the thirety land did plenty bring ;
But thou, forewarned, overtook and wet the king.
What since thou didst, a higher force thee pushed
Still from behind, and it before thee rushed.
Though undiscerned among the tumult blind,
Who think those high decrees by man designed,
'Twas Heaven would not that ere thy power

should cease.
But walk still middle betwixt war and peace ;
Choosing each stone, and poising every weight,
Trying the measures of the breadth and height,
Here pulling down, and there erecting new.
Founding a firm state by proportions true.

When Gideon so did from the war retreat.
Yet by the conquest of two kings grown great,
He on the peace extends a warlike power,
And Israel, silent, saw him rase the tower.
And how lie 8uccoth*s elders durst suppress
With thorns and briars of the wilderness ;
No king might ever such a force have done,
Yet would not he be lord, nor yet his son.



Digitized by



Google



OP MARVELL. 149

Thou with the same strength, and a heart so
plain,
Didst like thine olive still refuse to reign ;
Though why should others all thy labour spoil,
And brambles be anointed with thine oil,
Whose climbing flame, without a timely stop,
Had quickly levelled every cedar's top ?
Therefore, fii*st growing to thyself a law,
The ambitious shrubs thou in just time didst awe.

So have I seen at sea, when whirling winds
Hurry the bark, but more the seamen's minds,
Who with mistaken course salute the sand,
And threatening rocks misapprehend for land, —
While baleful tritons to the shipwreck guide.
And corposants* along the tacklings slide, —
The passengers all wearied out before,
Giddy, and wishing for the fatal shore, —
Some lusty mate, who with more careful eye,
Counted the hours, and every star did spy,
The helm does from the artless steersman strain.