The Poems of John Byrom :: :: University of Virginia Library

Fellow-Citizens all, for whose Safety I peep
All Night at the Stars, and all Day go to sleep;
Attend, while I shew you the Meaning of Fate
In all the strange Sights we have seen here of late;
And thou, O Astrology, Goddess divine,
Celestial Decipheress, gently incline

Thine Ears, and thine Aid, to a Lover of Science,
That bids to all Learning but thine a Defiance.

II

For what Learning else is there half so engaging
As an Art where the Terms of themselves are presaging;
Which by muttering o'er, any gentle Mechanic
May put his whole Neighbourhood into a Panic;
Where a Noddle well turn'd for Prediction, and Shoes,
If it can but remember hard Words, cannot choose,
From the Prince on his Throne to the Dairy Maid milking,
But read all their Fortunes in yonder blue Welkin?

III

For the sky is a Book, where, in Letters of Gold,
Is writ all that Almanacs ever foretold;
Which he that can read and interpret also—
What is there, which such a one cannot foreshow?
When a true Son of Art ponders over the Stars,
They reflect back upon him the Face of Affairs;
Of all Things of Moment they give him an Inkling,
While Empires and Kingdoms depend on their Twinkling.

IV

Your Transits, your Comets, Eclipses, Conjunctions,
Have all, it is certain, their several Functions;
And on this Globe of Earth here, both jointly and singly,
Do influence Matters most ástonishingly.

But to keep to some Method, on this same Occasion,
We'll give you a full and true Interpretation
Of all the Phenomena we have rehearst.
Of which in their Order: the first, of the first.

V

As for Mercury's travelling over the Sun,
There's Nothing in that, Sirs, when all's said and done;
For what will be, will be; and Mercury's Transit,
I'm pos'tive, will neither retard, nor advance it.
But when a Conjunction or Comet takes Place,
Or a total Eclipse, that's a different Case:
They that laugh at our Art may here see with their Eyes,
That some Things, at least, may appear from the Skies.

VI

A Conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars,
You may turn, if you please, Gentlemen, to mere Farce:
But what if it plainly appear, that three Men
Are foretold by three Planets—what will ye say then?
Now, to prove this, I'll only make one small Request,
That is, that you'll all turn your Faces to th' East;

And then you shall see, ere I've done my Epistle,
If I don't make it out, ay, as clear as a Whistle.

VII

In the first Place, old Saturn, we very well know,
Lost his Kingdom and Provinces some while ago;
Nor was it long after old Saturn's Disgrace,
That Jupiter mov'd to step into his Place;
And Mars, we all know, was a quarrelsome Bully,
That beat all his Neighbours most únmercifully;
And now, who can doubt who these Gentlemen are,
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars?—Sophy, Sultan, and Czar.

VIII

But to prove, nearer Home, that the Stars have not trifl'd,
Pray have we not lost, cruel Star, Doctor Byfield?
Alas! Friends at Richard's, alas! what a Chasm
Will be made in the Annals of Enthusiasm!
As soon as the Comet appear'd in the Sky,
Pray did not the Doctor straight fall sick and die?
I wonder how Folk could discover a Comet,
And yet never draw this plain Consequence from it.

IX

The death of the Regent might show, if it needed,
Why they saw it in France fo much plainer than we did;
And how well it forebodes to our Nobles and Princes,
That its Tail was here shorter by several Inches.

But so near to the Eagle this Comet appear'd,
That something may happen, it is to be fear'd:
Great Men have been known by the Arms which they bore,
But “God bless the Emperor,”—I say no more.

X

And now for th' Eclipse, which is such an Appearance
As perhaps will not happen this many a Year hence.
The King of France died, the last total Eclipse,
Of a Mortification near one of his Hips;
From whence by our Art may be plainly made out,
That some great Man or other must die at this Bout;
But as the Eclipse is not yet, nor that neither,
You know 'tis not proper to say more of either.

XI

Yet two that are false I shall venture to name,
Men of Figure and Parts, and of unspotted Fame;
Who, all Parties will own, are and always have been
Great Ornaments to the high Station they're in,
Admir'd of all Sides; who will therefore rejoice,
When, consulting the Stars, I pronounce it their Voice,
That, for all this Eclipse, there shall no Harm befall
Those two honest—Giants, that are in Guildhall.

XII

So much for great Men;—I come now to predict
What Evils in gen'ral will Europe afflict:
Now, the Evils that Conjurers tell from the Stars,
Are Plague, Famine and Pestilence, Bloodshed and Wars,
Contagious Diseases, great Losses of Goods,
Great Burnings by Fire, and great Drownings by Floods;
Hail, Rain, Frost and Snow, Storms of Lightning and Thunder:
And if none of these happen,—'twill be a great Wonder.