Founding a firm state by
proportions
true.
Marvell - Poems
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
And doubles back unto the safer main :
What though awhile they grumble, discontent ?
Saving himself, he does their loss prevent.
*Tis not a freedom that, where all command,
Nor tyranny, where one does them withstand ;
* Marine meteors, which Portuguese nuiriners call the
Bodies of the Saints; corpos santos.
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160 TOE POKMS
But who of both the bounders knows to lay,
Him, as their father, must the state obey.
Thou and thy house, like Noah's eight did rest,
Left by the war's flood, on the mountain's crest •,
And the large vale lay subject to thy will,
Which thou but as an husbandman, wouldst till ;
And only didst for others plant the vine
Of Liberty, not drunken with its wine.
That sober liberty which, men may have.
That they enjoy, but more they vainly crave ;
And such as to their parent's tents do press,
May show their own, not see his nakedness.
