Читать книгу Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham - Edmund Waller - Страница 6

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So earnest with thy God! can no new care,

No sense of danger, interrupt thy prayer?

The sacred wrestler, till a blessing given,

Quits not his hold, but halting conquers Heaven;

Nor was the stream of thy devotion stopp'd,

When from the body such a limb was lopp'd,

As to thy present state was no less maim,

Though thy wise choice has since repair'd the same.

Bold Homer durst not so great virtue feign

In his best pattern:[2] of Patroclus slain, 10

With such amazement as weak mothers use,

And frantic gesture, he receives the news.

Yet fell his darling by th'impartial chance

Of war, imposed by royal Hector's lance;

Thine, in full peace, and by a vulgar hand

Torn from thy bosom, left his high command.

The famous painter[3] could allow no place

For private sorrow in a prince's face:

Yet, that his piece might not exceed belief,

He cast a veil upon supposed grief. 20

'Twas want of such a precedent as this

Made the old heathen frame their gods amiss.

Their Phoebus should not act a fonder part

For the fair boy,[4] than he did for his heart;

Nor blame for Hyacinthus' fate his own,

That kept from him wish'd death, hadst thou been known.

He that with thine shall weigh good David's deeds,

Shall find his passion, nor his love, exceeds: 28

He cursed the mountains where his brave friend died,

But let false Ziba with his heir divide;

Where thy immortal love to thy bless'd friends,

Like that of Heaven, upon their seed descends.

Such huge extremes inhabit thy great mind,

Godlike, unmoved, and yet, like woman, kind!

Which of the ancient poets had not brought

Our Charles's pedigree from Heaven, and taught

How some bright dame, compress'd by mighty Jove,

Produced this mix'd Divinity and Love?

[1] 'Buckingham's death': Buckingham was murdered by Felton at

Portsmouth, on the 23d of August 1628, while equipping a fleet for

the relief of Rochelle. Lord Lindsey succeeded him. The king was at

prayers when the news arrived, and had the resolution to disguise

his emotion till they were over.

[2] 'Pattern': Achilles.

[3] 'Painter': Timanthes in his picture of Iphigenia.

[4] 'Fair boy': Cyparissus.