And pikes are taken in the pound ; ««
But I, retiring from the flood.
But I, retiring from the flood.
Marvell - Poems
We wondering in the river near «»
How l>oat8 among them safely steer ;
Or, like the desert Memphis' sand,
Short pyramids of hay do stand ;
And such the Roman camps do rise
In hills for soldiers' obsequies. *^
This scene, again withdrawing, brings
A new and empty face of things ;
A levelled space, as smooth and plain,
As cloths for Lilly * stretched to stain.
The world when first created sure «»
Was such a table rase and pure ;
Or rather such is the Toril,
Ere the bulls enter at Madril ;
For to this naked equal flat,
Which levellers take pattern at, 46o
The villagers in common chase
Their cattle, which it closer rase ;
And what below the scythe increased
Is pinched yet nearer by the beast.
Such, in the painted world, appeared 455
Davenant, with the universal herd.
They seem within the polished grass
A landscape drawn in looking-glass ;
And shrunk in the huge pasture, show
As spots, so shaped, on faces do ; 4(. o
Such fleas, ere they approach the eye,
In multiplying glasses lie.
• An eminent cloth dyer.
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OP MARVELL. 23
They feed so wide, so slowly move,
As constellations do above.
Then, to conclude these pleasant acts, *S6
Denton sets ope its cataracts ;
And makes the meadow truly be
(What it but seemed before) a sea ;
For, jealous of its Lord's long stay,
It tries to invite him thus away. *t
The river in itself is drowned.
And isles the astonished cattle round.
Let others tell the paradox.
How eels now bellow in the ox ;
How horses at their tails do kick, 47s
Turned, as they hang, to leeches quick ;.
How boats can over bridges sail,
And fishes to the stables scale ;
How salmons trespassing are found.
And pikes are taken in the pound ; ««
But I, retiring from the flood.
Take sanctuary in the wood ;
And, while it lastf! , myself embark
In this yet green, yet growing ark.
Where the first carpenter might best 48s
Fit timber for his keel have pressed,
And where all creatures might have shares.
Although in armies, not in pairs.
The double wood, of ancient stocks.
Linked in so thick an union locks, <»
It like two pedigrees appears,
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tJ4 THE POEMS.
On one hand Fairfax, t'other Veres :
Of whom though many fell in war,
Yet more to heaven shooting are :
And, as tliey Nature's cradle decked,
Will, in green age, her hearse expect
When first the eye this forest sees,
It seems indeed as wood, not trees ;
As if their neighbourhood so old
To one great trunk them all did mould.
There the huge bulk takes place, as meant
To thrust up a fifth element.
And stretches still so closely wedged,
As if the night within were hedged.
Dark all without it knits ; within
It opens passable and thin.
And in as loose an order gix)W8,
As the Corinthian porticos.
The arching boughs unite between
The columns of the temple green,
And underneath the winged quires
p]cho about their tuned fires.
TJie nightingale does here make choice
To sing the trials of her voice ;
Low shrubs she sits in, and adorns
With music high the squatted thorns ;
But highest oaks stoop down to hear,
And listening elders prick the ear ;
The thorn, lest it should hurt her, draws
Within the skin its shrunken claws.
But I have for my music found
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OF MARVELL. 25
A sadder, yet more pleasing sound ;
The stock-doves, whose fair necks are graced
With nuptial rings, their ensigns chaste,
Yet always, for some cause unknown, ««
Sad pair, unto the elms they moan.
