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IL PENSEROSO.

HENCE, vain deluding joys,

The brood of folly without father bred, How little you bestead,

Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! Dwell in some idle brain,

And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the sunbeams,
Or likest hovering dreams

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.
But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy,
Hail divinest Melancholy,

Whose saintly visage is too bright

To hit the sense of human sight,

5

10

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The Sea-Nymphs, and their pow'rs offended:
Yet thou art higher far descended;

18 too bright] Hor. Od. i. xix. 8. 'Nimium lubrious aspici.'

19 Ethiop] Noctem Ethiopissam.' Miltoni Prolus. p. 73.

Thee bright-hair'd Vesta, long of yore,
To solitary Saturn bore;

His daughter she (in Saturn's reign,
Such mixture was not held a stain).
Oft in glimmering bow'rs and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of cyprus lawn,
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast

25

30

35

40

Thou fix them on the earth as fast:

And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,

45

Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses in a ring

Aye round about Jove's altar sing:

85 cyprus] Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3.

'Cyprus black as e'er was crow.' Warton.

87 keep] 'State in wonted manner keep.' Jonson's Cynth. Rev. act v. s. 6. Warton.

And add to these retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;
But first, and chiefest, with thee bring,
Him that yon soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
The Cherub Contemplation;
And the mute Silence hist along,
'Less Philomel will deign a song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night,
While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke,
Gently o'er th' accustom❜d oak;

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among

I woo, to hear thy even-song;
And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heav'n's wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfew sound,

58 Smoothing] Shakesp. Sonnets, 51.

59 checks] Todd's Milton, vol. vi. p. 323.

68 Riding] Eurip. Suppl. 994. iππevovoi di' õppvac.

50

55

60

70

Thee bright-hair'd Vesta, long of yore,
To solitary Saturn bore;

His daughter she (in Saturn's reign,
Such mixture was not held a stain).
Oft in glimmering bow'rs and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of cyprus lawn,
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till

With a sad leaden downward cast

25

30

35

40

Thou fix them on the earth as fast:

And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,

45

Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses in a ring

Aye round about Jove's altar sing:

85 cyprus] Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3.

'Cyprus black as e'er was crow.' Warton.

87 keep] 'State in wonted manner keep.' Jonson's Cynth. Rev. act v. s. 6. Warton.

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To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon.

Like one that had been led astrav
Through the neayn's wide valua
And her head. Le "APA-
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