Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/437

 ANDREW MARVELL

He lands us on a grassy stage,

Safe from the storms' and prelates' rage:

He gave us this eteirial Spring

Which here enamels everything,

And sends* the fowls to us in care

On daily visits through the air.

He hangs in shades the orange bright

Like golden lamps in a green night,

And does in the pomegranates close

Jewels more rich than Ormus shows:

He mikes the figs our mouths to meet

And throws the melons at our feet;

But apples plants of such a price,

No tree could ever bear them twice.

With cedars chosen by His hand

From Lebanon He stores the land;

And makes the hollow seas that roar

Proclaim the ambergris on shore.

He cast (of which we rather boast)

The Gospel's pearl upon our coast;

And in these rocks for us did frame

A temple where to sound His name.

O, let our voice His praise exalt

Till it arrive at Heaven's vault,

Which thence (perhaps) rebounding may

Echo beyond the Mexique bay''

Thus sung they in the English boat A holy and a cheerful note: And all the way, to guide their chime, With falling oars they kept the time.

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