Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/403

 POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES

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��Altera doua inihi, dedit altera dona parent! ; Dividuumque Deum, geuitorque puerque,

tenemus. Tu tamen ut simules teneras odisse Ca-

nioenas, Non odisse reor. Neque enim, pater, ire

jubebas

Qua via lata patet, qua pronior area lucri, Certaque coudendi fulget spes aurea

uummi ; 70

Nee rapis ad leges, male custoditaque

gentis

Jura, nee insulsis damnas clamoribus aures. Sed, magis excultam cupieus ditescere

mentem,

Me, procul urbano strepitu, secessibus altis Abductum, Aoniae jucunda per otia ripae, Phcebaeo lateri comitem sinis ire beatum. Officium chari taceo commune parentis; Me poscunt majora. Tuo, pater optime,

sumptu

Cum mibi Romuleae patuit facundia lin- guae, Et Latii veneres, et quae Jovis ora dece-

bant 80

Grandia magniloquis elata vocabula Graiis, Addere suasisti quos jactat Gallia flores, Et quam degeneri uovus I talus ore loque-

lam

Fundit, barbaricos testatus voce tuniultus, Quaeque Palaestinus loquitur mysteria vates. Denique quicquid habet caelum, subjecta-

que cselo Terra parens, terraeque et cselo interfluus

aer, Quicquid et unda tegit, pontique agitabile

marmor,

Per te nosse licet, per te, si nosse libebit; Dimotaque venit spectanda Scieutia nube, 90 Nudaque conspicuos iucliuat ad oscula

vultus,

Ni fugisse velim, ni sit libasse molestum. I mine, confer opes, quisquis malesanus

avitas

Austriaci gazas Periianaque regna praeoptas. Qua? potuit majora pater tribuisse, vel ipse Jupiter, excepto, douasset ut omnia, caelo ? Non potiora dedit, quamvis et tuta fuis-

sent,

Publica qui juveni commisit lumina nato, Atque Hyperionios currus, et fraena diei, Et circum undantem radiata luce tiaram. 100 Ergo ego, jam doctae pars quamlibet ima

catervae, Victrices hederas inter laurosque sedebo;

��divide bimself, and gave one half himself to me and the other half to you. Father and son, we share between us the god.

But for all your pretence of hatred against

poetry I do not believe that you hate it.

For you did not command me, father, to

go where the way lies open broad, and

lucre is easy to earn; where the hope of

gain shines golden and sure. Nor did you

drag me to the bar, to grope among laws

ill-kept of the people, and to listen to the


 * insipid clamor of pleaders. Nay, rather


 * you wished to enrich still more my mind,

i already well-nurtured, and led me far

from the city uproar into high retirement,

and permitted me to enjoy happy leisure

by the Aonian stream, and to walk a glad

companion at Apollo's side.

I will say nothing of the common love and duty due to a dear parent; your claims on me are higher. When, at your cost, dear father, I had mastered the tongue of Romu- lus and seen all the graces of it, and had learned the noble idiom of the magnilo- quent Greeks, fit for the great mouth of Jove himself, you persuaded me to add to these the flowers which France boasts; and the speech which the modern Italian pours from his degenerate lips, bearing witness in every accent of the barbarian tumults; and the language in which the singers of Palestine speak their mysteries. After- wards, whatever the sky holds, or mother earth under the sky, or the air of heaven between; whatever the wave hides, or the restless marble of the sea, of all this through you I am enabled to learn, through yon, if I care to learn. From the parted cloud comes Science, naked and lovely, and bends her entrancing face to my kisses; I neither wish to flee, nor deem it harmful to taste what is proffered.

Go, gather wealth, ye dull minds that care for the old treasures of Austria, and of the Peruvian realm. What greater gift than learning could my father have given me, or Jove himself, unless he had given me his sky and all ? Not more potent, though more dangerous, was the gift which Jove gave to his son, the mighty lights, and the chariot Hyperion drove, and the reins of day, and the tiara of undulating radiance. Therefore, since I am a part, though the humblest, of the gifted throng, I shall sit triumphant among ivy and laurel I shall

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