Oculus Britanniae An Heroi-Panegyrical poem on the University of Oxford. Illustrated with divers beautiful Similes, and useful Digressions [by Nicholas Amhurst] |
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 | Oculus Britanniae |  |
But see! another rev'rend form appears,
Whose headless trunk provokes my flowing tears;
The sacred lawn his gushing blood distains;
And with religious horror chills my veins:
Much-injur'd Laud, religion's boldest chief,
A while, great shade, indulge the muse's grief;
O prelate, greatly for the church distrest,
What zeal, what fury could inflame thy breast,
The rage of british senates to withstand,
And stem the torrent of a factious land?
Yet shalt thou not repent the pious deed,
Though destin'd by the traytor's ax to bleed:
With Becket in religious mischief bold,
A rubrick martyr shalt thou stand inroll'd;
His annual debt thy successor shall pay,
And crown with solemn woe the woeful day.
Whose headless trunk provokes my flowing tears;
The sacred lawn his gushing blood distains;
And with religious horror chills my veins:
Much-injur'd Laud, religion's boldest chief,
A while, great shade, indulge the muse's grief;
O prelate, greatly for the church distrest,
What zeal, what fury could inflame thy breast,
The rage of british senates to withstand,
And stem the torrent of a factious land?
Yet shalt thou not repent the pious deed,
Though destin'd by the traytor's ax to bleed:
7
A rubrick martyr shalt thou stand inroll'd;
His annual debt thy successor shall pay,
And crown with solemn woe the woeful day.
| Oculus Britanniae | |