434 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS: This is the first whose language sues For your release from waxen bands ; Laden with humble love it bows To kiss a welcome from your hands ; Accept the duty which it brings, And pardon its delaying wings. 2. The Sun in Eclipse. --To Horatio. Dear H. TILE first thought which I glanced upon after I had set pen to paper, was the approach of the solar eclipse, and it im- pressed me with such force, that I was constrained to spend a few lines to dress up a sudden thought on that subject, in the strain which we learnt not many years ago among the heathen poets. Now, now 'tis just at hand Now the bright sun leaves his meridian stage, Rolls down the hill, and meets his sister's rage ; Her gloomy wheels full at his chariot run, And join fierce combat with her brother sun. The gentle monarch of the azure plain Still paints and silvers her rebellious waip, And shoots his wonted fires, but shoots his fires in vain. Th' ungrateful planet does as fast requite Tb' o'erflowing measures of her borrow'd light )} With an impetuousdeluge of her resistless night. His flaming coursers toss their raging heads, And heave and grapple with the stubborn shades ; Their eyeballs flash, their brazen bellows puff, And belch ethereal fire to keep the darkness off; In vain their brazen lungs, in vain their eyes,. Night spreads her banners o'er the wond'ring skies. Say, peaceful muse, what fury did excite The kindred stars to this prodigious fight ? Are these the rules of nature ? Will the skies Let such dark scenes of dreadful battle rise? What dire events hang threat'ning o'er the earth ? What plagues, what wars, just bursting into birth? Now for his teeming glebe the ploughman fears, Lest it should yield a crop of iron spears ; Shepherds see death spread o'er the fleecy downs ; Monarchs grow pale and tremble for their crowns r Vain dreams of mortal weakness! Awake, philosophy, with radiant eye, Who searcheth all that's deep, and all that's high : Awake, survey the spheres, explain the laws Of heav'n, and bring to light the eternal cause. Of present darkness, lyc. Southampton, June 1695. 3. In a Letter to Dlarinda, speaking concerning our blessed Saviour. LET your immortal thoughts arise; Survey hit, crown'd with every grace,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=