University of Virginia Library

LINES from ALCANDER and the EARLY POEMS.

I.

[Shields, helms, and swords all jangle as they hang]

Shields, helms, and swords all jangle as they hang,
And sound formidinous with angry clang.

II.

[Whose honours with increase of ages grow]

Whose honours with increase of ages grow;
As streams roll down enlarging as they flow.

III.

[As man's meanders to the vital spring]

As man's meanders to the vital spring
Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring.

IV.

[So swift,—this moment here, the next 'tis gone]

So swift,—this moment here, the next 'tis gone,
So imperceptible the motion.

V. On a lady's drinking the Bath-waters.

She drinks! She drinks! Behold the matchless Dame!
To her 'tis Water, but to us 'tis Flame:
Thus Fire is Water, Water Fire, by turns,
And the same Stream at once both cools and burns.

VI. The same lady goes into the Bath.

Venus beheld her, 'midst her Crowd of Slaves,
And thought Herself just risen from the Waves.

VII. The Metonymy.

Lac'd in her Cosins new appear'd the Bride,
A Bubble-boy and Tompion at her Side,
And with an Air divine her Colmar ply'd.
Then oh! she cries, what Slaves I round me see?
Here a bright Redcoat, there a smart Toupee.

VIII. An Eye-witness of things never yet beheld by Man.

Thus have I seen, in Araby the blest,
A Phœnix couch'd upon her Fun'ral Nest.

IX. How inimitably circumstantial is this [description] of a War-Horse!

His Eye-Balls burn, he wounds the smoaking Plain,
And knots of scarlet Ribbond deck his Mane.

X. The Hyperbole.

Of a Scene of Misery.

Behold a Scene of Misery and Woe!
Here Argus soon might weep himself quite blind,
Ev'n tho' he had Briareus' hundred Hands
To wipe those hundred Eyes—

XI. The Periphrasis

A Country Prospect.

I'd call them Mountains, but can't call them so,
For fear to wrong them with a Name too low;
While the fair Vales beneath so humbly lie,
That even humble seems a Term too high.