Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires

Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All sadness but despair: now gentle gales,

Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense

Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole

Those balmy spoils. As when, to them who sail

Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past

Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow

Sabean odors from the spicy shore

Of Araby the blest; with such delay Well pleased, they slack their course, and many a league,

Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles.

EVE'S RECOLLECTIONS.

THAT day I oft remember, when from sleep

I first awaked, and found myself reposed

Under a shade on flowers, much wondering where

And what I was, whence thither brought,

and how.

Not distant far from thence, a murmuring sound

Of waters issued from a cave, and spread

Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved, Pure as the expanse of Heaven; I thither went

With unexperienced thought, and laid me down

On the green bank, to look into the clear

Smooth lake, that to me seem'd another sky.

As I bent down to look, just opposite,

A shape within the watery gleam appear'd,

Bending to look on me: I started back, It started back; but pleased I soon return'd,

Pleased it return'd as soon with answering looks

Of sympathy and love.

EVENING IN PARADISE.

Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray

Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,

They to their grassy couch, these to their nests,

Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;

She all night long her amorous descant sung;

Silence was pleased: now glow'd the firmament

With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led

The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon,

Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen, unveil'd her peerless

light,

And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

EVE'S CONJUGAL LOVE.

My author and disposer, what thou bid'st,

Unargued I obey: so God ordains;
God is thy law, thou mine: to know no

more

Is woman's happiest knowledge, and her praise.

With thee conversing I forget all time; All seasons and their change, all please alike.

Sweet in the breath of Morn, her rising sweet,

With charms of earliest birds: pleasant the Sun,

When first on this delightful land he spreads

His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,

Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile Earth

After soft showers; and sweet the com

ing on

Of grateful Evening mild; then silent Night,

With this her solemn bird, and this fair Moon,

And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train:

But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends

With charm of earliest birds; nor rising Sun

On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,

Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers;

Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night,

With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon,

Or glittering star-light, without thee, is

sweet.

ADAM AND EVE'S MORNING

HYMN.

THESE are thy glorious works, Parent of good,

Almighty! Thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair: Thyself how wondrous then!

Unspeakable, who sit'st above these heavens

To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.

Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,

Angels; for ye behold him, and with

songs

And choral symphonies, day without night,

Circle his throne rejoicing; ye, in Heaven:

On Earth join all ye creatures to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and without end.

Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn

With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy sphere,

While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.

Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,

Acknowledge him thy greater; sound his praise

In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,

And when high noon hast gain'd, and when thou fall'st.

Moon, that now meet'st the orient Sun, now fly'st,

With the fix'd stars, fix'd in their orb that flies;

And ye five other wandering fires, that

move

In mystic dance not without song, resound

His praise, who out of darkness call'd up light.

Air, and ye elements, the eldest birth
Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion

run

Perpetual circle, multiform; and mix And nourish all things; let your ceaseless change

Vary to our great Maker still new praise. Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise From hill or steaming lake, dusky, or

gray,

Till the Sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,

In honor to the world's great Author rise;

Whether to deck with clouds the un

color'd sky,

Or wet the thirsty Earth with falling showers,

Rising or falling still advance his pratse. His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,

On either side a formidable shape; The one seem'd woman to the waist and fair;

But ended foul in many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast; a serpent arm'd With mortal sting: About her middle round

A cry of Hell-hounds, never ceasing, bark'd

With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung

A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep,

If aught disturb'd their noise, into her womb,

And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd, Within unseen. these

Far less abhorr'd than

Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian

shore;

Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, call'd

In secret, riding through the air she

comes,

Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance

With Lapland witches, while the labor ing Moon

Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,

If shape it might be call'd that shape had none

Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;

Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,

For each seem'd either: black it stood as night,

Fierce as ten furies, terrible as Hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head

Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before."

So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape,

So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold

More dreadful and deform. On the other side,

Incensed with indignation, Satan stood Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In the Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair

Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head

Levell'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands

No second stroke intend; and such a frown

Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds,

With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on

Over the Caspian, then stand front to front,

Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow

To join their dark encounter in mid air: So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell

Grew darker at their frown; so match'd they stood;

For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe: and now great

deeds

Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung,

Had not the snaky sorceress that sat Fast by Hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, Risen, and with hideous outcry rush'd between.

The intricate wards, and every bolt and

bar

Of massy iron or solid rock with ease Unfastens. On a sudden open fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, The infernal doors, and on their hinges

grate

Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook

Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut Excell'd her power; the gates wide open stood,

That with extended wings a banner'd host,

Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through

With horse and chariots rank'd in loose

array;

So wide they stood, and like a furnace

mouth

Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy

flame.

Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height,

And time, and place are lost; where eldest Night

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce,

Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring

Their embryon atoms; they around the flag

Of each his faction, in their several clans, Light arm'd or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow,

Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the sands

Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil,

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,

He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits, And by decision more embroils the fray, By which he reigns: next him high arbiter

Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss, The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave,

Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,

But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd

Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,

Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds;

Into this wild abyss the wary fiend Stood on the brink of Hell, and look'd a while,

Pondering his voyage.

L'ALLEGRO.

HENCE loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus, and blackest Midnight born,

In Stygian cave forlorn, 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sighs unholy,

Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,

And the night raven sings;

There under ebon shades, and lowbrow'd rocks,

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. But come, thou Goddess fair and free, In Heav'n yclep'd Euphrosyne, And by men, heart-easing Mirth, Whom lovely Venus at a birth With two sister Graces more To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore: Or whether (as some sages sing) The frolic wind that breathes the spring, Zephyr, with Aurora, playing, As he met her once a maying, There on beds of vi'lets blue, And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew, Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair, So buxom, blithe, and debonair.

Haste, thee, Nymph, and bring with

thee

Jest and youthful Jollity,