Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/233

 Of the four Ages of Man.

��T O now four other a6t ' upon the ftage,

^-^ Childhood and Youth, the Manly & Old age;

The firft Ion unto flegm, Grand-child to water,

Unftable, fupple, cold and moift's his nature.

The fecond frolick, claims his pedegree

From blood and air, for hot and moift is he.

The third of fire and Choler is compos'd

Vindicative and quarrelfome difpos'd.

The laft of earth, and heavy melancholy,

Solid, hating all lightnefs and all folly.

Childhood was cloth'd in white & green '^ to Ihow

His fpring was intermixed with fome fnow:

Upon his head nature a Garland let

Of Primrofe, Daizy & the Violet.

Such cold mean flowrsthe fpring puts forth '' betime[44]

Before the fun hath throughly heat-^ the clime.

His Hobby ftriding did not ride but run,

And in his hand an hour-glafs new begun,

c acts. ri cjiven. ' ( as thefe^ bloflbme. ./ warm'd.

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