Which in expressing, we
ourselves
betray !
Marvell - Poems
O, wings I
O, worthless world ! O, transitory things !
Yet dwelt that greatness in his shape decayed,
That still though dead, greater than death he laid.
And in his altered face you something feign
That threatens Death, he yet will live again.
Not much unlike the sacred oak, which shoots
To Heaven its branches, and through earth its
roots.
Whose spacious boughs are hung with trophies
round,
And honored wreaths have ofl the victor
crowned.
When angry Jove darts lightning through the air
At mortal sins, nor his own plant will spare,
It groans and bruises all below, that stood
So many years the shelter of the wood,
The tree, erewhile foreshortened to our view,
When fairn shows taller yet than as it grew ;
So shall his praise to after times increase.
When truth shall be allowed, and faction cease ;
And his own shadows with him fall ; the eye
Detracts iVom objects than itself more high ;
But when Death takes them from that envied stuto,
Seeing how little, we confess how great.
Thee, many ages hence, in martial verse
Shall the English soldier, ere he charge, rehearse ;
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166 THE POEMS
Singing of thee, inflame himself to fight,
And, with the name of Cromwell, armies fright.
As long as rivers to the seas shall run,
As long as Cynthia shall relieve the sun,
While stags shall fly unto the forests thick,
While sheep delight the grassy downs to pick.
As long as future time succeeds the past,
Always thy honour, praise and name, shall last !
Thou in a pitch how far beyond the sphere
Of human glory tower'st, and reigning there
Despoiled of mortal robes, in seas of bliss
Plunging, dost bathe, and tread the bright abyss !
There tiiy great soul yet once a world doth see,
Spacious enough and pure enough for thee.
How soon thou Moses hast, and Joshua found.
And Daviti, for the sword and hai-p renowned ;
How straight canst to each happy mansion go,
(Far better known above than here below,)
And in those joys dost spend the endless day.
Which in expressing, we ourselves betray !
For we, since thou art gone, with heavy
doom,
Wander like ghosts about thy loved tomb,
And lost in tears, have neither sight nor mind
To guid»j us upward through this region blind ;
Since thou art gone, who best that way couldst
tracli,
Only our >ighs, perhaps, may thither reach.
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OP MARVELL. . 167
And Richard yet, where his great parent led,
Beats on the rugged track : he virtue d^ad
Revives, and by his milder beams assures ;
And yet how much of them his grief obscures I
He, as his father, long was kept from sight
In private, to be viewed by better light ;
But opened once, what splendour does he throw !
A Cromwell in an hour a prince will grow.
How he becomes that seat, how strongly strains,
How gently winds at once the ruling reins !
Heaven to this choice prepared'a diadem,
Richer than any Eastern silk, or gem,
A pearly rainbow, where the sun inchased,
His brows like an imperial jewel graced.
We find already what those omens mean,
EaHh ne'er more glad, nor Heaven more serene.
Cease now our griefs, calm peace succeeds a war.
Rainbows to storms, Richard to Oliver.
Tempt not his clemency to try his power,
He threats no deluge, yet foretells a shower.
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SATIRES.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
SATIRES
THE CHARACTER OF HOLLAND,
Holland, that scarce deserves the name of
land,
As but the oflf-scouring of the British sand,
And so much earth as was contributed'
By English pilots when they heaved the lead,
Or what by the ocean's slow alluvion fell
Of shipwrecked cockle and the muscle-shell, —
This indigested vomit of the sea
Fell to the Dutch by just propriety.
Glad then, as miners who have found the ore.
They, with mad labour, fished the land to shore,
And dived as desperately fpr each piece
Of earth, as if 't had been of ambergreese.
O, worthless world ! O, transitory things !
Yet dwelt that greatness in his shape decayed,
That still though dead, greater than death he laid.
And in his altered face you something feign
That threatens Death, he yet will live again.
Not much unlike the sacred oak, which shoots
To Heaven its branches, and through earth its
roots.
Whose spacious boughs are hung with trophies
round,
And honored wreaths have ofl the victor
crowned.
When angry Jove darts lightning through the air
At mortal sins, nor his own plant will spare,
It groans and bruises all below, that stood
So many years the shelter of the wood,
The tree, erewhile foreshortened to our view,
When fairn shows taller yet than as it grew ;
So shall his praise to after times increase.
When truth shall be allowed, and faction cease ;
And his own shadows with him fall ; the eye
Detracts iVom objects than itself more high ;
But when Death takes them from that envied stuto,
Seeing how little, we confess how great.
Thee, many ages hence, in martial verse
Shall the English soldier, ere he charge, rehearse ;
Digitized by VjOOQIC
166 THE POEMS
Singing of thee, inflame himself to fight,
And, with the name of Cromwell, armies fright.
As long as rivers to the seas shall run,
As long as Cynthia shall relieve the sun,
While stags shall fly unto the forests thick,
While sheep delight the grassy downs to pick.
As long as future time succeeds the past,
Always thy honour, praise and name, shall last !
Thou in a pitch how far beyond the sphere
Of human glory tower'st, and reigning there
Despoiled of mortal robes, in seas of bliss
Plunging, dost bathe, and tread the bright abyss !
There tiiy great soul yet once a world doth see,
Spacious enough and pure enough for thee.
How soon thou Moses hast, and Joshua found.
And Daviti, for the sword and hai-p renowned ;
How straight canst to each happy mansion go,
(Far better known above than here below,)
And in those joys dost spend the endless day.
Which in expressing, we ourselves betray !
For we, since thou art gone, with heavy
doom,
Wander like ghosts about thy loved tomb,
And lost in tears, have neither sight nor mind
To guid»j us upward through this region blind ;
Since thou art gone, who best that way couldst
tracli,
Only our >ighs, perhaps, may thither reach.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
OP MARVELL. . 167
And Richard yet, where his great parent led,
Beats on the rugged track : he virtue d^ad
Revives, and by his milder beams assures ;
And yet how much of them his grief obscures I
He, as his father, long was kept from sight
In private, to be viewed by better light ;
But opened once, what splendour does he throw !
A Cromwell in an hour a prince will grow.
How he becomes that seat, how strongly strains,
How gently winds at once the ruling reins !
Heaven to this choice prepared'a diadem,
Richer than any Eastern silk, or gem,
A pearly rainbow, where the sun inchased,
His brows like an imperial jewel graced.
We find already what those omens mean,
EaHh ne'er more glad, nor Heaven more serene.
Cease now our griefs, calm peace succeeds a war.
Rainbows to storms, Richard to Oliver.
Tempt not his clemency to try his power,
He threats no deluge, yet foretells a shower.
Digitized by
Digitized by
SATIRES.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Digitized by VjOOQIC
SATIRES
THE CHARACTER OF HOLLAND,
Holland, that scarce deserves the name of
land,
As but the oflf-scouring of the British sand,
And so much earth as was contributed'
By English pilots when they heaved the lead,
Or what by the ocean's slow alluvion fell
Of shipwrecked cockle and the muscle-shell, —
This indigested vomit of the sea
Fell to the Dutch by just propriety.
Glad then, as miners who have found the ore.
They, with mad labour, fished the land to shore,
And dived as desperately fpr each piece
Of earth, as if 't had been of ambergreese.
