The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (22 page)

Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online

Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel

Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry

BOOK: The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
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Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,

For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the wat’ry floor!

So sinks the day-star
1214
in the ocean bed

And yet anon
1215
repairs
1216
his drooping head

And tricks
1217
his beams, and with new spangled ore
1218

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,

Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves!

Where other groves and other streams along

With nectar pure his oozy
1219
locks he laves
1220

And hears the unexpressive
1221
nuptial song

In the blest kingdoms meek, of joy and love.

There entertain him all the saints above,

In solemn
1222
troops,
1223
and sweet societies
1224

That sing, and singing in their glory move,
1225

And wipe the tears forever from his eyes.

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more!

Henceforth thou art the genius
1226
of the shore

In thy large
1227
recompense,
1228
and shalt be good

To all that wander in that perilous flood.

Thus sang the uncouth
1229
swain to th’ oaks and rills,
1230

While the still morn went out with sandals gray.

He touched the tender stops of various quills,
1231

With eager thought warbling his Doric
1232
lay.

And now the sun had stretched out
1233
all the hills,

And now was dropped into the western bay.

At last he rose and twitched
1234
his mantle blue:

Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

 

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, BOOK ONE

 

1646–48?

 

Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa, rendered almost word for word, without rhyme, according to the Latin measure,
1235
as near as the [English] language will permit.

 

What slender youth, bedewed with liquid odors,

Courts
1236
thee on roses in some pleasant cave,

Pyrrha? For whom bind’st thou

In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain
1237
in thy neatness?
1238
O how oft shall he

On faith and changèd gods complain, and seas

Rough with black winds and storms

Unwonted
1239
shall admire,
1240

Who now enjoys thee credulous
1241
all gold?

Who always vacant,
1242
always amiable,

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful? Hapless
1243
they

To whom thou, untried,
1244
seem’st fair. Me in my vowed
1245

Picture
1246
the sacred wall declares t’ have hung
1247

My dank and drooping weeds
1248

To the stern god of sea.

 

ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE, UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT

 

1647?

 

Because you have thrown off your prelate
1249
lord

And with stiff
1250
vows renounced his liturgy,
1251

To seize the widowed whore, plurality
1252

From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorred,

Dare ye for this adjure
1253
the civil sword

To force our consciences that Christ set free,

And ride us with a classic
1254
hierarchy

Taught ye by mere A.S.
1255
and Rutherford?
1256

Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent

Would have been held in high esteem with Paul

Must now be named and printed heretics

By shallow Edwards
1257
and Scotch what d’ye call.
1258

But we do hope to find out all your tricks,

Your plots and packings, worse than those of Trent,
1259

That so the Parliament

May with their wholesome and preventive shears

Clip your phylactries
1260
(though bauk
1261
your ears),

And succor our just fears

When they shall read this clearly in your charge:

New presbyter is but old priest writ large.

 

PSALMS 1–8
1262

 

August 1653

 

1

Blessed is the man who hath not walked astray

In counsel of the wicked, and i’ th’ way

Of sinners hath not stood, and in the seat

Of scorners hath not sat. But in the great

Jehovah’s Law is ever his delight,

And in His Law he studies day and night.

He shall be as a tree which, planted, grows

By wat’ry streams, and in his season knows

To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall,

And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.

Not so the wicked, but as chaff
1263
which fanned
1264

The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand
1265

In judgment, or abide
1266
their trial then,

Nor sinners in the assembly of just men.

For the Lord knows th’ upright way of the just,

And the way of bad men to ruin
1267
must.

 

2

Why do the gentiles
1268
tumult,
1269
and the nations

Muse
1270
a vain thing? The kings of the earth upstand
1271

With power, and princes in their congregations
1272

Lay deep their plots together, through each land,

Against the Lord and His Messiah dear.

Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand,

Their bonds, and cast from us, no more to wear,

Their twisted cords. He who in Heav’n doth dwell

Shall laugh. The Lord shall scoff
1273
them, then, severe,
1274

Speak to them in His wrath, and in His fell
1275

And fierce
1276
ire
1277
trouble
1278
them. But I saith He

Anointed hath my King (though ye rebel)

On Sion, my holy hill. A firm decree

I will declare. The Lord to me hath said

Thou art my Son, I have begotten thee

This day. Ask of me, and the grant is made.

As thy possession I on thee bestow

Th’ heathen, and as thy conquest (to be swayed
1279
)

Earth’s utmost bounds. Them shalt thou bring full low,

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