John Milton

IL Penseroso

		HENCE, vain deluding Joys,
		............The brood of Folly without father bred!
		How little you bested
		............Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys!
5		Dwell in some idle brain,
		............And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess,
		As thick and numberless
		............As the gay motes that people the sun-beams,
		Or likest hovering dreams,
10		............The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.
		But, hail! thou Goddess sage and holy!
		Hail, divinest Melancholy!
		Whose saintly visage is too bright
		To hit the sense of human sight,
15		And therefore to our weaker view
		O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue;
		Black, but such as in esteem
		Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,
		Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove
20		To set her beauty's praise above
		The Sea-Nymphs, and their powers offended.
		Yet thou art higher far descended:
		Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore
		To solitary Saturn bore;
25		His daughter she; in Saturn's reign
		Such mixture was not held a stain.
		Oft in glimmering bowers and glades
		He met her, and in secret shades
		Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
30		Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove.
		Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,
		Sober, steadfast, and demure,
		All in a robe of darkest grain,
		Flowing with majestic train,
35		And sable stole of cypress lawn
		Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
		Come; but keep thy wonted state,
		With even step, and musing gait,
		And looks commercing with the skies,
40		Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
		There, held in holy passion still,
		Forget thyself to marble, till
		With a sad leaden downward cast
		Thou fix them on the earth as fast.
45		And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet,
		Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet,
		And hears the Muses in a ring
		Aye round about Jove's altar sing;
		And add to these retired Leisure,
50		That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;
		But, first and chiefest, with thee bring
		Him that yon soars on golden wing,
		Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
		The Cherub Contemplation;
55		And the mute Silence hist along,
		'Less Philomel will deign a song,
		In her sweetest saddest plight,
		Smoothing the rugged brow of Night,
		While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke
60		Gently o'er the accustomed oak.
		Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,
		Most musical, most melancholy!
		Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among
		I woo, to hear thy even-song;
65		And, missing thee,I walk unseen
		On the dry smooth-shaven green,
		To behold the wandering moon,
		Riding near her highest noon,
		Like one that had been led astray
70		Through the heaven's wide pathless way,
		And oft, as if her head she bowed,
		Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
		Oft, on a plat of rising ground,
		I hear the far-off curfew sound,
75		Over some wide-watered shore,
		Swinging slow with sullen roar;
		Or, if the air will not permit,
		Some still removed place will fit,
		Where glowing embers through the room
80		Teach light to counterfeit a gloom,
		Far from all resort of mirth,
		Save the cricket on the hearth,
		Or the bellman's drowsy charm
		To bless the doors from nightly harm.
85		Or let my lamp, at midnight hour,
		Be seen in some high lonely tower,
		Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,
		With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere
		The spirit of Plato, to unfold
90		What worlds or what vast regions hold
		The immortal mind that hath forsook
		Her mansion in this fleshly nook;
		And of those demons that are found
		In fire, air, flood, or underground,
95		Whose power hath a true consent
		With planet or with element.
		Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
		In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
		Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
100		Or the tale of Troy divine,
		Or what (though rare) of later age
		Ennobled hath the buskined stage.
		But, O sad Virgin! that thy power
		Might raise Musaeus from his bower;
105		Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
		Such notes as, warbled to the string,
		Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,
		And made Hell grant what love did seek;
		Or call up him that left half-told
110		The story of Cambuscan bold,
		Of Camball, and of Algarsife,
		And who had Canace to wife,
		That owned the virtuous ring and glass,
		And of the wondrous horse of brass
115		On which the Tartar king did ride;
		And if aught else great bards beside
		In sage and solemn tunes have sung,
		Of turneys, and of trophies hung,
		Of forests, and enchantments drear,
120		Where more is meant than meets the ear.
		Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career,
		Till civil-suited Morn appear,
		Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont
		With the Attic boy to hunt,
125		But kerchieft in a comely cloud
		While rocking winds are piping loud,
		Or ushered with a shower still,
		When the gust hath blown his fill,
		Ending on the rustling leaves,
130		With minute-drops from off the eaves.
		And, when the sun begins to fling
		His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring
		To arched walks of twilight groves,
		And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves,
135		Of pine, or monumental oak,
		Where the rude axe with heaved stroke
		Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,
		Or fright them from their hallowed haunt.
		There, in close covert, by some brook,
140		Where no profaner eye may look,
		Hide me from day's garish eye,
		While the bee with honeyed thigh,
		That at her flowery work doth sing,
		And the waters murmuring,
145		With such consort as they keep,
		Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep.
		And let some strange mysterious dream
		Wave at his wings, in airy stream
		Of lively portraiture displayed,
150		Softly on my eyelids laid;
		And, as I wake, sweet music breathe
		Above, about, or underneath,
		Sent by some Spirit to mortals good,
		Or the unseen Genius of the wood.
155		But let my due feet never fail
		To walk the studious cloister's pale,
		And love the high embowed roof,
		With antique pillars massy proof,
		And storied windows richly dight,
160		Casting a dim religious light.
		There let the pealing organ blow,
		To the full-voiced quire below,
		In service high and anthems clear,
		As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
165		Dissolve me into ecstasies,
		And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.
		And may at last my weary age
		Find out the peaceful hermitage,
		The hairy gown and mossy cell,
170		Where I may sit and rightly spell
		Of every star that heaven doth shew,
		And every herb that sips the dew,
		Till old experience do attain
		To something like prophetic strain.
175		These pleasures, Melancholy, give;
		And I with thee will choose to live.

Robert Clark

John Milton

IL Penseroso

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