Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/122

 8o POEMS DURING CIVIL WAR AND PROTECTORATE

��7 Return us, and thy grace divine,

O God of Hosts, vouchsafe ; 30

Cause thou thy face on us to shine, And then we shall be safe.

8 A Vine from Egypt thou hast brought,

Thy free love made it thine, And drov'st out nations proud and haul, To plant this lovely Vine.

9 Thou didst prepare for it a place,

And root it deep and fast, That it began to grow apace,

And filled the land at last. 40

10 With her green shade that covered all

The hills were overspread Her boughs as high as cedars tall Advanced their lofty head.

11 Her branches on the western side

Down to the sea she sent, And upward to that river wide Her other branches went.

12 Why hast thou laid her hedges low,

And broken down her fence, 50

That all may pluck her, as they go, With rudest violence ?

13 The tusked boar out of the wood

Upturns it by the roots; Wild beasts there browse, and make

their food Her grapes and tender shoots.

14 Return now, God of Hosts; look down

From Heaven, thy seat divine; Behold us, but without a frown,

And visit this thy Vine. 60

15 Visit this Vine, which thy right hand

Hath set, and planted long, And the young branch, that for thy- self Thou hast made firm and strong.

16 But now it is consumed with fire,

And cut with axes down; They perish at thy dreadful ire, At thy rebuke and frown.

17 Upon the Man of thy right hand

Let thy good hand be laid ; 70

Upon the Son of Man, whom Thou Strong for thyself hast made.

18 So shall we not go back from thee

To ways of sin and shame : Quicken us thou; then gladly we Shall call upon thy Name.

19 Return us, and thy grace divine,

Lord God of Hosts, vouchsafe : Cause thou thy face on us to shine, And then we shall be safe. 80

��PSALM LXXXI

1 To God our strength sing loud and

clear;

Sing loud to God our King; To Jacob's God, that all may hear, Loud acclamations ring.

2 Prepare a hymn, prepare a song;

The timbrel hither bring; The cheerful psaltery bring along, And harp with pleasant string.

3 Blow, as is wont, in the new moon,

With trumpets' lofty sound, 10

The appointed time, the day whereon Our solemn feast comes round.

4 This was a statute given of old

For Israel to observe, A law of Jacob's God to hold,

From whence they might not swerve.

5 This he a testimony ordained

In Joseph, not to change, When as he passed through Egypt- land; The tongue I heard was strange. 20

6 From burden, and from slavish toil,

I set his shoulder free ; His hands from pots, and miry soil, Delivered were by me.

7 When trouble did thee sore assail,

On me then didst thou call, And I to free thee did not fail,

And led thee out of thrall. I answered thee in 1 thunder deep,

With clouds encompassed round; 30 I tried thee at the water steep

Of Meriba renowned.

8 Hear, O my people, hearken well :

I testify to thee, Thou ancient stock of Israel, If thou wilt list to me:

9 Throughout the land of thy abode

No alien God shall be, Nor shalt thou to a foreign god

In honour bend thy knee. 40

10 I am the Lord thy God, which brought

Thee out of Egypt-land ; Ask large enough, and I, besought, Will grant thy full demand.

11 And yet my people would not hear,

Nor hearken to my voice; And Israel, whom I loved so dear, Misliked me for his choice. 1 Be Sether ragnam.

�� �