Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/201

 The Four Elements. 115

Man wants his bread and wine, & pleafant fruits

He knows, fuch fweets, lies not in Earths dr}^ roots

Then feeks me out, in river and in well

His deadly malady I might expell:

If I fupply, his heart and veins rejoyce,

If not, foon ends his life, as did his voyce;

That this is true. Earth thou canft not deny

I call thine Egypt, this to verifie,

Which by my fatting Nile, doth yield fuch ftore

That fhe can fpare, when nations round are poor

When I run low, and not o'reflow her brinks

To meet with want, each woful man be-thinks:

And fuch I am, in Rivers, fhowrs and fprings

But what's the wealth, that my rich Ocean brings

Fifhes fo numberlefs, I there do hold

If thou fhouldft buy, it would exhauft thy gold:

There lives the oyly Whale, whom all men know

Such wealth but not fuch like. Earth thou maift Ihow

The Dolphin loving mufick. Avians friend

The witty ^ Barbel, whofe craft'' doth her commend

With thoufands^more, which now I lift not name

Thy lilence of thy Beafts doth caufe the fame

My pearles that dangle at thy Darlings ears, [16]

Not thou, but fhel-lifh yield, as Pliny clears.

Was ever gem fo rich found in thy trunk,

As Egypts wanton, Cleopatra drunk f

Or haft thou any colour can come nigh

The Roman purple, double Tirian Dye?

i craft}'. i wit.

�� �