English Poems

Excerpt from English Poems, Vol. 2<br> Last Poems, 1667-1671.<br> Half yet remains, unsung, but narrower bound<br> Within the visible diurnal sphere;<br> Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,<br> More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchang'd<br> To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days,<br> On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues;<br> In darkness, and with dangers compast round,<br> And solitude; yet not alone, while thou<br> Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn<br> Purples the east: still govern thou my song,<br> Urania, and fit audience find, though few.<br> But drive far off the barbarous dissonance<br> Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race<br> Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard<br> In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears<br> To rapture, till the savage clamour drown'd<br> Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend<br> Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:<br> For thou art Heav'nly, she an empty dream.<br> Say goddess, what ensu'd when Raphael,<br> The affable archangel, had forewarn'd<br> Adam by dire example to beware<br> Apostasy, by what befel in Heaven<br> To those apostates, lest the like befall<br> In Paradise to Adam or his race,<br> Charg'd not to touch the interdicted tree,<br> If they transgress, and slight that sole command,<br> So easily obey'd amid the choice<br> Of all tastes else to please their appetite,<br> Though wandring. He with his consorted Eve,<br> The story heard attentive, and was fill'd<br> With admiration, and deep muse to hear<br> Of things so high and strange, things to their thought<br> So unimaginable as hate in Heav'n,<br> And war so near the peace of God in bliss<br> With such confusion: but the evil soon<br> Driv'n back redounded as a flood on those<br> From whom it sprung, impossible to mix<br> About the Publisher<br> Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br> This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.