Shall
conquests
act, you present are unsung.
Marvell - Poems
Your worth to all these isles a jut-t right brings,
The best of lands should have the best of kings.
And these want nothing heaven can afford,
Unless it be, the having you their lord ;
But this great want will not a long one prove,
Your conquering sword will soon that want
remove ;
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OF MARVELL. 121
For Spain had better, she'll ere long confess,
Have broken all her swords, tlian this one
peace;
Casting that league off, which she held so long,
She cast off that which only made her strong.
Forces and art, she soon will feel, are vain,
Peace, against you, was the sole strength of
Spain ;
By that alone those islands she secures.
Peace makes them hers, but war will make them
yours.
There the rich grape the soil indulgent breeds.
Which of the gods the fancied drink exceeds.
They still do yield, such is their precious mould.
All that is good, and are not cursed with gold ;
With fatal gold, for still where that does grow
Neither the soil, nor people, quiet know ;
Which troubles men to raise it when 'tis ore.
And when 'tis raised does trouble them much
more.
Ah, why was thither brought that cause of war.
Kind nature had from thence removed so faj^ !
In vain doth she those islands free from ill.
If fortune can make guilty what she will.
But whilst I draw that scene, where you, ere
long.
Shall conquests act, you present are unsung.
For Santa Cruz the glad fleet takes her way.
And safely there casts anchor in the bay.
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122 THE POEMS
Never so many, with one joyful cry,
That place salated, where they all must die.
Deluded men I Fate with you did hut sport,
You 'scaped the sea, to perish in your port
Twas more for England's fame you should die
there,
Where you had most of strength and least of
fear.
The Peak's proud height the Spaniards all
admire,
Yet in their breasts carry a pride much higher.
Only to this vast hill a power is given,
At once both to inhabit earth and heaven.
But this stupendous prospect did not near
Make them admire, so much as they did fear.
For here they met with news, which did pro-
duce
A grief, above the cure of grape's best juice.
They learned with terror, that nor summer's heat,
Nor winter's storms, had made your fleet retreat.
To fight against such foes was vain, they knew.
Which did the rage of elements subdue.
Who on the ocean, that does horror give
To all beside, triumphantly do live.
With haste they therefore all their galleons
moor.
And flank with cannon from the neighbouring
shore ;
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OP MARVELL. 123
Forts, lines, and sconces, all the bay along,
They build, and act all that can make them
strong.
