Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 2.djvu/140

134 And heaven, as if there wanted lights above,
 * For tapers made two glaring comets rise.

The description of the attempt at Bergen will afford a very complete specimen of the descriptions in this poem:

And now approach'd their fleet from India, fraught
 * With all the riches of the rising sun :

And precious sand from southern climates brought,
 * The fatal regions where the war begun.

Like hunted castors, conscious of their store,
 * Their way-laid wealth to Norway's coast they bring:

Then first the North's cold bosom spices bore,
 * And winter brooded on the eastern spring.

By the rich scent we found our perfum'd prey,
 * Which, flank'd with rocks, did close in covert lie;

And round about their murdering cannon lay,
 * At once to threaten and invite the eye.

Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard,
 * The English undertake th' unequal war:

Seven ships alone, by which the port is barr'd,
 * Besiege the Indies, and all Denmark dare.

These fight like husbands, but like lovers those:
 * These fain would keep, and those more fain enjoy:

And to such height their frantick passion grows,
 * That what both love, both hazard to destroy:

Rh