ODES. UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.* YE flaming Powers, and winged Warriours bright, Seas wept from our deep sorrow: He, who with all Heaven's heraldry whilere Sore doth begin His infancy to seize! O more exceeding love, or law more just? For we, by rightful doom remediless, Were lost in death, till he that dwelt above 5 10 15 High throned in secret bliss, for us frail dust 20 And that great covenant which we still transgress And the full wrath beside Of vengeful justice bore for our excess; And seals obedience first, with wounding smart, This day; but, O! ere long, Huge pangs and strong Will pierce more near his heart. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT, DYING OF A COUGH.† I. O FAIREST flower, no sooner blown but blasted. 25 The "Circumcision" is better than the "Passion," and has two or three Miltorio nes.-BRYDGES. †The "Elegy on the Death of a Fair Infant" is praised by Warton, and well characterized in his last note upon it; but it has more of research and laboured fancy than of feeling, and is not a general favourite.-BRYDGES. It was written at the age of seventeen. 20. Emptied his glory. An expression | r putation,”—but, as it is in the original, taken from Phil. ii. 7, but not as in our | (kavrov ekɛvwσɛ,) “He emptied himself.” translation,-"He made himself of no 42* -NEWTON. 497 Summer's chief honour, if thou hadst out-lasted That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss, II. For since grim Aquilo, his charioteer, By boisterous rape the Athenian damsel got, 10 Of long uncoupled bed and childless eld, III. So, mounting up in icy-pearled car, Through middle empire of the freezing air But, all unwares, with his cold-kind embrace IV. Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate; Young Hyacinth, the pride of Spartan land; Alack, that so to change thee Winter had no power! V. Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead, Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb, 30 Hid from the world in a low-delved tomb. Could Heaven for pity thee so strictly doom? 8. Aquilo, or Boreas, the North wind, | enamoured of Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens. 12. Infamous, the common accent in old English poetry. 23. For so Apollo, &c. From these lines one would suspect, although it does not immediately follow, that a boy was the subject of the Ode; but in the last stanza the poet says expressly, Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child, 35 Yet, in the eighth stanza, the person la mented is alternately supposed to have been sent down to earth in the shape of two divinities, one of whom is styled a "just maid," and the other a "sweetsmiling youth." But the child was cer tainly a niece, a daughter of Milton's sister Philips. 40. Were, instead of are, for rhyme.47. Earth's sons, the giants.-50. Maid, Justice.-54. Youth, Mercy. 67. To turn swift-rushing, &c. Among VI. Resolve me then, O soul most surely blest, O, say me true, if thou wert mortal wight, VII. Wert thou some star, which from the ruin'd roof Of sheeny Heaven, and thou, some goddess fled, VIII Or wert thou that just Maid, who once before Or wert thou that sweet-smiling youth? Or that crown'd matron sage, white-robed Truth? Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some good? IX. 40 45 50 55 Or wert thou of the golden-winged host, To earth from thy prefixed seat didst post, And after short abode fly back with speed, 60 As if to show what creatures heaven doth breed; To scorn the sordid world, and unto heaven aspire? X. But, O! why didst thou not stay here below 65 pression, and versification; even in the conceits, which are many, we perceive strong and peculiar marks of genius. I think Milton has here given a very remarkable specimen of his ability to succeed in the Spenserian stanza. He moves with great ease and address amidst the embarrassment of a frequent return of rhyme.-T. WARTON. To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart? But thou canst best perform that office where thou art. XI. 70 Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child, ON TIME.* FLY, envious Time, till thou run out thy race; Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace; So little is our loss, So little is thy gain! For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb'd, Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss 75 10 With an individual kiss ; And Joy shall overtake us as a flood; When every thing that is sincerely good And perfectly divine, About the supreme throne With Truth, and Peace, and Love, shall ever shine Of him, to whose happy-making sight alone When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb: Then, all this earthy grossness quit, Attired with stars, we shall for ever sit, Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time. AT A SOLEMN MUSICK.† BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy; 15 20 * In Milton's_manuscript, written with his own hand, the title is,-"On Time. To be set on a clock-case.” † The “Ode at a Solemn Musick” is a short prelude to the strain of genius which produced "Paradise Lost." Warton says, that perhaps there are no finer lines in Milton than one long passage which he cites, (17-24.) I must say that this is going a little too far. That they are very fine I admit; but the sublime philosophy, to which he alludes as their prototype, must not be put in comparison with the fountains of "Paradise Lost." So far they are exceedingly curious, that they show how early the poet had constructed in his own mind the language of his divine imagery, and how rich and vigorous his style was, almost in his boyhood.-BRYDGES. 12. Individual: Eternal, inseparable. 14. Sincerely: Purely, perfectly. Wed your divine sounds, and mix'd power employ With saintly shout, and solemn jubilee ; With those just spirits that wear victorious palms, Singing everlastingly: That we on earth, with undiscording, voice, Jarr'd against Nature's chime, and with harsh din. To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd In first obedience, and their state of good. O, may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light! AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.* THIS rich marble doth inter A viscount's daughter, an earl's heir, Added to her noble birth, More than she could own from earth. After so short time of breath, To house with darkness and with death. 10 * In Howell's entertaining Letters, there is one to this lady,-the Lady Jane Savage, Marchioness of Winchester,-dated March 15, 1626. He says, he assisted her in learning Spanish; and that Nature and the Graces exhausted all their treasure and skill in "framing this exact model of female perfection." 6. The undisturbed song of pure concent is the diapason of the music of the spheres, to which, in Plato's system, God himself listens.-T. WARTON. See note on line 62 of "Arcades," p. 451. 17. That we on earth, &c. Perhaps there are no finer lines in Milton, less obscured by conceit, less embarrassed by affected expressions, and less weakened by pompous epithets: and in this perspicuous and simple style are conveyed scine of the noblest ideas of a most sublime philosophy, heightened by metaphors and allusions suitable to the sub ject.-T. WARTON. |