No worldly wave my mind can toss, I fear no foe, nor fawn on friend, I joy not in an earthly bliss; I weigh not Croesus' wealth a straw; I fear not fortune's fatal law. I wish but what I have at will ;6 I wander not to seek for more; In greatest storms I sit on shore, I kiss not where I wish to kill; I feign not love where most I hate; I scorn no poor, I fear no rich, I feel no want, nor have too much. This is my choice; for why ?-I find 3 brook, bear. 4 bane, a thing regarded as most injurious, or which really is so. & Cræsus, an ancient King of Lydia, of fabulous wealth. I wish only what I can have if I choose. WHAT pleasures have great princes And fortune's favours scorning, All day their flocks each tendeth; For lawyers and their pleading, Where conscience judgeth plainly, O happy who thus liveth, 1 dainty, but getting either is not easy-from distance, &c. JOHN MILTON.-Born, 1608; Died, 1674. Milton ranks next after Shakspeare among English poets. His "Paradise Lost" is his greatest poem. He was Latin secretary to Cromwell. HYMN ON THE NATIVITY. Ir was the winter wild, While the heaven-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature, in awe of him, Had doffed her gaudy trim, With her great Master so to sympathise : It was no season then for her To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.2 Only with speeches fair She woos the gentle air, To hide her guilty front with innocent snow; And on her naked shame, Pollute with sinful blame, The saintly veil of maiden-white to throw; Confounded, that her Maker's eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities. But he, her fears to cease, Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace; She, crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding Down through the turning sphere,* 1 gaudy trim, summer glory. 2 paramour, lover. 3 pollute, for polluted. 4 turning sphere, the revolving heavens. His ready harbinger,5 With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing; She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. No war or battle's sound Was heard the world around: The idle spear and shield were high up hung; Unstain'd with hostile blood; The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng; As if they surely knew their sov'reign lord was by. But peaceful was the night, Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began: Smoothly the waters kiss'd, Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean, Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmèd wave. The stars, with deep amaze, Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze, Bending one way their precious influence; And will not take their flight, For all the morning light, Or Lucifer,10 had often warn'd them thence; 5 harbinger, herald. 6 There was peace over the earth (the Roman Empire) when Christ was 7 chariots had hooked knives pro jecting from their wheels. 8 Hushed. 9 For all, though. 10 Lucifer, the morning star. But in their glimmering orbs did glow, Until their Lord Himself bespake, and bid them go. And though the shady gloom Had given day her room," The sun himself withheld his wonted speed, And hid his head for shame, As his inferior flame The new-enlighten'd world no more should need; He saw a greater sun appear Than his bright throne, or burning axletree, could bear. The shepherds on the lawn, Or ere the point of dawn, Sat simply chatting in a rustic row; Full little thought they then That the mighty Pan12 Was kindly come to live with them below; Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. When such music sweet Their hearts and ears did greet, As never was by mortal fingers strook,13 Divinely-warbled voice Answering the stringèd noise, As all their souls in blissful rapture took: The air, such pleasure loath to lose, With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close.14 11 Had retired. 12 Pan, lit., "The all;" here, for the ideal heathen god of antiquity. Pan was the name of the god of shepherds and flocks, but it became at a later time the symbol of the universe and of its Lord. 13 struck 14 close, period, or bar |