Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/205

 The Four Elements. 119

��Air. [19]

/^ONTENT (quoth Air) to fpeak the laft of you,

^^ Yet am not ignorant^ firft was my due:

I do fuppofe you'l yield without controul

I am the breath of every living foul.

Mortals, what one of you that loves not me

Abundantly more then my Sifters three ?

And though you love Fire, Earth and Water well

Yet Air beyond all thefe you know t'excell.

I ask the man condemn'd, that's neer his death.

How gladly fhould his gold purchafe his breath,

And all the wealth that ever earth did give.

How freely fhould it go fo he might live:

No earth,^' thy witching trafti were all but vain.

If my pure air thy fons did not fuftain.

The famifh'd thirfty man that craves fupply,

His moving reafon is, give leaft I d3^e,

So loth he is to go though nature's fpent

To bid adieu to his dear Element.

Nay what are words which do reveal the mind,

Speak who or what they will they are but wind.

Your drums your trumpets & your organs found,

What is't but forced air which doth ' rebound.

And fuch are ecchoes and report ofth' gun

That tells afar th'exploit which it hath done.

Your Songs and pleafant tunes they are the fame.

And fo's the notes which Nig-htin^ales do frame.

g Though not through ignorance. h world. ' muft.

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