 | Poems by Robert Gomersall |  |
On the Eastside of Gibeah there stood
An overgrowne and unfrequented wood,
The trees so thickly plac'd, that you would guesse,
(Had you beheld that horrid wildernesse:
How darkenesse all the Mastery had wonne,)
Twas made for the discredit of the Sunne;
Never did any raye pierce through those leaves,
And if at any time it light receives
Tis onely when the heavens doe misse their stroke,
And passing wicked men, murder an Oke.
So that the brightnesse that adornes the same
Serves not so much to'inlighten, as inflame,
Here never did the nimble Fairy tread,
Nor ever any of the Wood-nymphes bred
Within this grove, but it was singled out
For Pluto's regiment, for that bad rout
Of Hell-borne furies, there you might have seene
Alecto stretch'd at her full length betweene
Two fatall Yughs, where while her rest she takes,
She gives an intermission to her Snakes,
Who in a thousand curles there hissing lye,
And she sleepes sweeter by their harmony.
Here had the Canaanite in former times
(Whilest that Religion did consist in crimes)
Offer'd his sonnes in sacrifice, as though
He meant to pay backe heav'n all he did owe
Or did conceive, (that which he should despaire)
To be without sinne, when without an heire.
An overgrowne and unfrequented wood,
The trees so thickly plac'd, that you would guesse,
(Had you beheld that horrid wildernesse:
How darkenesse all the Mastery had wonne,)
Twas made for the discredit of the Sunne;
71
And if at any time it light receives
Tis onely when the heavens doe misse their stroke,
And passing wicked men, murder an Oke.
So that the brightnesse that adornes the same
Serves not so much to'inlighten, as inflame,
Here never did the nimble Fairy tread,
Nor ever any of the Wood-nymphes bred
Within this grove, but it was singled out
For Pluto's regiment, for that bad rout
Of Hell-borne furies, there you might have seene
Alecto stretch'd at her full length betweene
Two fatall Yughs, where while her rest she takes,
She gives an intermission to her Snakes,
Who in a thousand curles there hissing lye,
And she sleepes sweeter by their harmony.
Here had the Canaanite in former times
(Whilest that Religion did consist in crimes)
Offer'd his sonnes in sacrifice, as though
He meant to pay backe heav'n all he did owe
Or did conceive, (that which he should despaire)
To be without sinne, when without an heire.
| Poems by Robert Gomersall | |