No More Learning

Forewarned him therefore, lest in time he were
Metempsychos'd to some Scotch Presbyter.



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134 THE POEMS



A HORATIAN ODE

UPON CROMWELL'S RETURN FROM IRELAND.

The forward youth that woald appear.
Must now forsake his muses dear.

Nor in the shadows sing

His numbers languishing :
'Tis time to leave the books in dusty
And oil the unused armour's rust,

Removing from the wall

The corselet of the hall.
So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious arts of peace,

But through adventurous war

Urged his active star ;
And, like the three-forked lightning, first
Breaking the clouds where it was nurst,

Did thorough his own side

His fiery way divide ;
(For 'tis all one to courage high,
The emulous, or enemy,

And with such to inclose,

Is more than to oppose ;)



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OF MARVELL.

Then burning througli the air he went,
And palaces and temples rent ;
And Caesar's head at last

Did through his laurels blast.
'Tis madness to resist or blame
The force of angry heaven's flame ;

And if we would speak true,

Much to the man is due,
Who from his private gardens, where
He lived reserved and austere,

As if his highest plot

To plant the bergamot,
Could bj industrious valour climb
To ruin the great work of Time,

And cast the kingdoms old.

Into another mould.
Though Justice against Fate complain,
And plead the ancient rights in vain,

[But those do hold or break,

As men are strong or weak,]
Nature, that hateth emptiness.
Allows of penetration less,

And therefore must make room

Where greater spirits comtj.
What field of all the civil war.
Where his were not the deepest scar ?

And Hampton shows what part

He had of wiser art ;
Where, twining subtile feai*s with hope,
He wove a net of such a scope



13. 5



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13G THK POKMS

That Charles himself might chase
To Carisbrook s narrow cjisc,
That thence the royal actor borne,
The tragic scaffold might adorn,

While round the armed bands.
Did clap their bloody hands :
He nothing common did, or mean,
Upon that memorable scene.

But with his keener eye
The axe's edge did try ;
Nor called the gods with vulgar spite
To vindicate his helpless right,

But bowed his comely head
Down, as upon a bed.
This was that memorable hour.
Which first assured the forced power ;
So, when they did design
The . Capitol's first line,
A bleeding bead, where they begun,
Did fright the architects to run ;
And yet in that the state
Foresaw its happy fate.
And now the Irish are ashamed
To see themselves in one year tamed ;
So much one man can do,
That does both act and know.
They can aflirm his praises best.
And have, though overcome, confessed
How good he is, how just,
And fit for highest trust.



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OF MARVELL. 137

Nor yet grown stiffer with command.
But still in the republic's hand,

(How fit he is to sway,

That can so well obey ! )
He to the Commons* feet presents
A kingdom for his first year's rents ;

And, what he may, forbears

His fame, to make it theirs ;
And has his sword and spoils ungirt,
To lay them at the public's skirt :

So when the falcon high

Falls heavy from the sky,
She, having killed, no more doth search.
But on the next green bough to perch ;

Where, when he first does lure.

The falconer has her sure.
What may not then our isle presume.
While victory his crest does plume?