Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/72

 POEMS WRITTEN AT HORTON

��SONNET TO THE NIGHTIN- GALE

(1632-33)

This piece and the following one have some- times been assigned to an earlier date. The identity of their tone with that of the Horton poems seems, in the absence of any definite evidence to the contrary, to warrant placing them here.

O NIGHTINGALE that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are

still, Thou with fresh hopes the Lover's heart

dost fill, While the jolly Hours lead on propitious

May.

Thy liquid notes that close the eye of Day, First heard before the shallow cuckoo's

bill,

Portend success in love. O if Jove's will Have linked that amorous power to thy

soft lay,

Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate Foretell my hopeless doom, in some grove

nigh; As thou from year to year hast sung too

late

For my relief, yet had'st no reason why. Whether the Muse or Love call thee his

mate, Both them I serve, and of their train am I.

��SONG ON MAY MORNING (1632-33)

Now the bright morning-star, Day's har- binger, Comes dancing from the East, and leads

with her The flowery May, who from her green lap

throws

The yellow cowslip and the pale prim- rose.

Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire ! Woods and groves are of thy dress- ing;

Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

��ON TIME (1633-34)

FLY, envious Time, till thou run out thy race:

Call on the lazy leaden-stepping Hours,

Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;

And glut thyself with what thy womb de- vours,

Which is no more than what is false and vain,

And merely mortal dross;

So little is our loss,

So little is thy gain !

For, whenas each thing bad thou hast en- tombed,

And, last of all, thy greedy Self consumed^

Then long eternity shall greet our bliss

With an individual kiss,

And joy shall overtake us as a flood;

When everything that is sincerely good

And perfectly divine,

With Truth, and Peace, and Love, shall ever shine

About the supreme Throne

Of Him, to whose happy-making sight alone

When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb,

Then, all this earthly grossness quit,

Attired with stars we shall forever sit,

Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time !

��AT A SOLEMN MUSIC

(1633-34) BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's

jy>

Sphere-born harmonious Sisters, Voice and

Verse, Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power

employ, Dead things with imbreathed sense able to

pierce ;

And to our high-raised phantasy present That undisturbed Song of pure consent, Aye sung before the sapphire - coloured

Throne To Him that sits thereon,

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