Poems On several Choice and Various Subjects Occasionally Composed By An Eminent Author. Collected and Published by Sergeant-Major P. F. [i.e. James Howell] |
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A Poem Heroique,
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 | Poems On several Choice and Various Subjects |  |
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A Poem Heroique,
Presented to his late Majesty for a New-years-Gift.
The Worlds All-lightning Ey had now begunThrough watry Capricorn his course to run:
Old Janus hastned on, his Temples bound
With Ivy, his gray hairs with Holly crown'd,
When in a serious quest my Thoughts did muse
What Gift, as best becoming, I should chuse
To Britains Monarch (my dread Soveraign)
Which might supply a New-years Offering;
I rummag'd all my stores, search'd all my Cells,
Where nought appear'd, God wot, but Bagatelles,
No far-fetch'd Indian Gem cut out of Rock,
Or fish'd in shells were trusted under lock:
No piece which Angelo's strong fancy hit,
Or Titians Pensil, or rare Hylliards Wit:
No Ermins, or black Sables, no such skins
As the grim Tartar hunts, or takes in gins;
No Medals, or rich stuff of Tyrian Dy;
No costly Bowls of frosted Argentry:
No curious Land-skip, or some Marble Piece
Digg'd up in Delphos, or els-where in Greece.
No Roman Perfumes, Buffs or Cordovans
Suppled with Amber by Moreno's hands:
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The Surging Seas from Asia's doubtful shore.
No Lyons Cub, or Beast of strange Aspect,
Which in Numidia's fiery Womb had slept.
No old Toledo Blades, or Damaskins;
No Pistols, or some rare-spring'd Carrabins.
No Spanish Ginet, or choice Stallion sent
From Naples, or hot Africs Continent.
In fine, I nothing found I could descry
Worthy the hands of Cæsar or his Ey.
My Wits were at a stand, when lo, my Muse
(None of the Quire, but such as they do use
For Laundresses or Handmaids of mean rank,
I knew sometimes on Po and Isis Bank)
Did softly Buz,—
Muse.
—Then let Me something bring
May hansel the New-year to Charles my King,
May usher in bifronted Janus.
Poet.
Thou fond fool-hardy Muse, thou silly thing
Which 'mongst the Shrubs & Reeds dost use to sing,
Dar'st thou perk up, and the tall Cedar clime,
And venture on a King with gingling Rime?
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And cut in Rubies, or cast in a mould
Of Diamonds, yet still thy Lines would be
Too mean a Gift for such a Majesty.
Muse.
I'le try, and hope to pass without disdain,
In New-years-Gifts the Mind stands for the Main,
The Sophy, finding twas well meant, did daign
Few drops of running-water from a Swain.
Then sure, 'twil please my Leige if I him bring
Some gentle drops from the Castalian Spring.
Though Rarities I want of such account,
Yet have I something on the Forked mount
'Tis not the first, or third access I made
To Cæsars feet, and thence departed glad:
For as the Sun with his male heat doth render
Nile's muddy slime fruitful, and apt t' engender,
And daily to produce new kind of Cretures
Of various shapes, and thousand differing features
So is my fancie quickned by the glance
Of his benign aspect and countenance,
It makes me pregnant, and to superfæte,
Such is the vigour of his beams and heat.
In New-years-Gifts the Mind stands for the Main,
The Sophy, finding twas well meant, did daign
Few drops of running-water from a Swain.
Then sure, 'twil please my Leige if I him bring
Some gentle drops from the Castalian Spring.
Though Rarities I want of such account,
Yet have I something on the Forked mount
'Tis not the first, or third access I made
To Cæsars feet, and thence departed glad:
For as the Sun with his male heat doth render
Nile's muddy slime fruitful, and apt t' engender,
And daily to produce new kind of Cretures
Of various shapes, and thousand differing features
So is my fancie quickned by the glance
Of his benign aspect and countenance,
It makes me pregnant, and to superfæte,
Such is the vigour of his beams and heat.
Once in a Vocal Forrest I did sing,
And made the Oak to stand for Charles my King
The best of Trees, whereof (it is no vant)
The greatest Schools of Europe sing and chant.
There you shall also finde Dame ARETINE,
Great Henries Daughter, and great Britains Queen;
Her Name engraven in a Lawrel Tree,
And so transmitted to Eternity;
For now I hear That Grove speaks besides Mine,
The Language of the Loire, the Po, and Rhine;
And to my Prince (my sweet Black Prince) of late
I did a youthful subject dedicate:
Nor do I doubt but that in time my Trees
Will yeild me fruit to pay Apollo's Fees,
To offer up whole Hecatombs of praise
To Cæsar, if on them he cast his raies:
And if my Lamp have Oyl, I may compile
The Modern Annals of great Albions Isle,
To vindicate the truth of Charles his Raign
From scribling Pamphletors, who story stain
With loose imperfect passages, and thrust
Lame things upon the world, t'ane up in trust.
And made the Oak to stand for Charles my King
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The greatest Schools of Europe sing and chant.
There you shall also finde Dame ARETINE,
Great Henries Daughter, and great Britains Queen;
Her Name engraven in a Lawrel Tree,
And so transmitted to Eternity;
For now I hear That Grove speaks besides Mine,
The Language of the Loire, the Po, and Rhine;
And to my Prince (my sweet Black Prince) of late
I did a youthful subject dedicate:
Nor do I doubt but that in time my Trees
Will yeild me fruit to pay Apollo's Fees,
To offer up whole Hecatombs of praise
To Cæsar, if on them he cast his raies:
And if my Lamp have Oyl, I may compile
The Modern Annals of great Albions Isle,
To vindicate the truth of Charles his Raign
From scribling Pamphletors, who story stain
With loose imperfect passages, and thrust
Lame things upon the world, t'ane up in trust.
I have had audience (in another strain)
Of Europes greatest Kings, when German Main,
And the Cantabrian waves I cross'd, I drank
Of Tagus, Seine, and sate at Tibers bank:
Through Scylla and Carybdis I have steer'd,
Where restless Ætna belching flames appeer'd.
By Greece, once Pallas Garden, then I past,
Now all ore-spread with Ignorance and Vast:
Nor hath fair Europe her vast bounds throughout,
An Academe of Note I found not out.
Of Europes greatest Kings, when German Main,
And the Cantabrian waves I cross'd, I drank
Of Tagus, Seine, and sate at Tibers bank:
Through Scylla and Carybdis I have steer'd,
Where restless Ætna belching flames appeer'd.
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Now all ore-spread with Ignorance and Vast:
Nor hath fair Europe her vast bounds throughout,
An Academe of Note I found not out.
But now, I hope, in a successful prore,
The Fates have fix'd me on sweet Englands shore;
And by these various wandrings tru I found,
Earth is our common Mother, evry ground
May be ones Country, for by birth each man
Is in this world a Cosmopolitan,
A free-born Burgess, and receivs thereby
His Denization from Nativity.
The Fates have fix'd me on sweet Englands shore;
And by these various wandrings tru I found,
Earth is our common Mother, evry ground
May be ones Country, for by birth each man
Is in this world a Cosmopolitan,
A free-born Burgess, and receivs thereby
His Denization from Nativity.
Nor is this Lower World but a huge Inn,
And men the rambling passengers, wherein
Some, warm Lodgings find, and that as soon
As out of Natures Clossets they see Noon,
And find the Table ready laid; but some
Must for their Commons trot, and trudge for room:
With easie pace some clime Promotions Hill;
Some in the Dale, do what they can, stick still:
Some through false Glasses Fortune smiling spy,
Who still keeps off, though she appears hard by:
Some like the Ostrich with their wings do flutter,
But cannot fly or soar above the Gutter:
Some quickly fetch, and double Good-Hopes Cape;
Some nere can do't, though the same course they shape:
So that poor Mortals are so many Balls
Toss'd some ore Line, some under Fortunes walls.
And men the rambling passengers, wherein
Some, warm Lodgings find, and that as soon
As out of Natures Clossets they see Noon,
And find the Table ready laid; but some
Must for their Commons trot, and trudge for room:
With easie pace some clime Promotions Hill;
Some in the Dale, do what they can, stick still:
Some through false Glasses Fortune smiling spy,
Who still keeps off, though she appears hard by:
Some like the Ostrich with their wings do flutter,
But cannot fly or soar above the Gutter:
Some quickly fetch, and double Good-Hopes Cape;
Some nere can do't, though the same course they shape:
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Toss'd some ore Line, some under Fortunes walls.
And it is Heavens high plesure Man should ly
Obnoxious to this partiality,
That by industrious ways he should contend
Natures short pittance to improve and mend.
Obnoxious to this partiality,
That by industrious ways he should contend
Natures short pittance to improve and mend.
Now Industry nere fail'd at last t' advance
Her patient Sons above the reach of Chance.
Her patient Sons above the reach of Chance.
Poet.
But whither rov'st thou thus ------?
Well, since I see thou art so strongly bent,
And of a Gracious Look so confident;
Go, And throw down thy self at Cæsars feet,
And in thy best attire thy Soveraign greet:
Go, an auspicious and most blissful year
Wish him, as ere shin'd ore this Hemisphear;
Good may the Entrance, better the Middle be,
And the Conclusion best of all the three.
Of Joy ungrudg'd may each day be a debter,
And evry Morn still usher in a better;
May the soft-gliding Nones, and evry Ide,
With all the Calends, still some good betide;
May Cynthia with kind looks, and Phœbus rays
One clear his Nights, the other gild his Days:
Free Limbs, unphysik'd Health, due Appetite,
Which no Sawce els but Hunger may excite:
Sound Sleeps, green Dreams be His, which represent
Symptomes of Health, and the next days content:
Chearful and vacant thoughts, not always bound
To Councel, or in deep Idea's drown'd:
(Though such late traverses and tumults might
Turn to a lump of care, the Airiest wight.)
And since while fragile flesh doth us array,
The Humours still are combating for sway
(Which, were they free of this Reluctancie,
And counter-pois'd, Man wold immortal be.)
May Sanguin ore the rest predominate
In Him, and their malignant flux abate.
Well, since I see thou art so strongly bent,
And of a Gracious Look so confident;
Go, And throw down thy self at Cæsars feet,
And in thy best attire thy Soveraign greet:
Go, an auspicious and most blissful year
Wish him, as ere shin'd ore this Hemisphear;
Good may the Entrance, better the Middle be,
And the Conclusion best of all the three.
Of Joy ungrudg'd may each day be a debter,
And evry Morn still usher in a better;
May the soft-gliding Nones, and evry Ide,
With all the Calends, still some good betide;
May Cynthia with kind looks, and Phœbus rays
One clear his Nights, the other gild his Days:
Free Limbs, unphysik'd Health, due Appetite,
Which no Sawce els but Hunger may excite:
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Symptomes of Health, and the next days content:
Chearful and vacant thoughts, not always bound
To Councel, or in deep Idea's drown'd:
(Though such late traverses and tumults might
Turn to a lump of care, the Airiest wight.)
And since while fragile flesh doth us array,
The Humours still are combating for sway
(Which, were they free of this Reluctancie,
And counter-pois'd, Man wold immortal be.)
May Sanguin ore the rest predominate
In Him, and their malignant flux abate.
May his great Queen, in whose imperious Ey
Reigns such a world of winning Majesty
Like the rich Olive, or Falernian Vine,
Swell with more Gems of Cions Masculine;
And as her Fruit sprung from the Rose and Luce,
(The best of Stems Earth yet did ere produce)
Is ti'd already by a Sanguin Lace,
To all the Kings of Europes high-born Race;
So may they shoot their youthful Branches ore
The Surging Seas, and graff with evry shore.
Reigns such a world of winning Majesty
Like the rich Olive, or Falernian Vine,
Swell with more Gems of Cions Masculine;
And as her Fruit sprung from the Rose and Luce,
(The best of Stems Earth yet did ere produce)
Is ti'd already by a Sanguin Lace,
To all the Kings of Europes high-born Race;
So may they shoot their youthful Branches ore
The Surging Seas, and graff with evry shore.
May home-commerce and Trade encrease from far,
That both the Indies meet within his bars,
And bring in mounts of Coin his Mints to feed,
And Banquers (Trafics chief Supporters) breed,
Which may enrich his Kingdoms, Court & Town,
And ballast still the Coffers of the Crown:
For Kingdoms are as Ships, the Prince his Chests
The Ballast, which if empty, when distrest
With storms, their holds are lightly trimm'd, the Keel
Can run no steady course, but toss and reel.
That both the Indies meet within his bars,
And bring in mounts of Coin his Mints to feed,
And Banquers (Trafics chief Supporters) breed,
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And ballast still the Coffers of the Crown:
For Kingdoms are as Ships, the Prince his Chests
The Ballast, which if empty, when distrest
With storms, their holds are lightly trimm'd, the Keel
Can run no steady course, but toss and reel.
May his Imperial Chamber always ply
To his desires her wealth to multiply,
That she may prize his Royal Favours more
Then all the wares fetch'd from the great Mogor.
May the grand Senate, with the Subjects right,
Put in the counter-Scale the Regal might
The flowres o'th' Crown, that they may prop each other,
And like the Grecians Twin live, love together:
For the chief glory of a peeple is
The power of their King, as Theirs is His.
To his desires her wealth to multiply,
That she may prize his Royal Favours more
Then all the wares fetch'd from the great Mogor.
May the grand Senate, with the Subjects right,
Put in the counter-Scale the Regal might
The flowres o'th' Crown, that they may prop each other,
And like the Grecians Twin live, love together:
For the chief glory of a peeple is
The power of their King, as Theirs is His.
May he be still within himself at home,
That no just Passion make the Reson roam:
Yet Passions have their turns to rouse the Soul,
And stir her slumb'ring spirits, not controul.
For as the Ocean beside Ebb and Flood
(Which Natures greatest Clerk ne're understood)
Is not for sail, if an impregning wind
Fill not the flagging Canvas; so a mind
Too calm, is not for Action, if desire
Heats not its self at Passions quickning fire:
For Nature is allow'd sometimes to muster
Her Passions, so they onely blow, not bluster.
That no just Passion make the Reson roam:
Yet Passions have their turns to rouse the Soul,
And stir her slumb'ring spirits, not controul.
For as the Ocean beside Ebb and Flood
(Which Natures greatest Clerk ne're understood)
Is not for sail, if an impregning wind
Fill not the flagging Canvas; so a mind
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Heats not its self at Passions quickning fire:
For Nature is allow'd sometimes to muster
Her Passions, so they onely blow, not bluster.
May Justice still in her true Scales appear,
And Honour fix'd in no unworthy Sphear,
Unto whose Palace all access shold have
Through Vertues Temple, not through Pluto's Cave.
And Honour fix'd in no unworthy Sphear,
Unto whose Palace all access shold have
Through Vertues Temple, not through Pluto's Cave.
May his tru subjects hearts be his chief Fort,
Their Purse his Tresure, and their Love his Port.
Their Prayers as sweet Incence to draw down
Myriads of Blessings on his Queen and Crown.
Their Purse his Tresure, and their Love his Port.
Their Prayers as sweet Incence to draw down
Myriads of Blessings on his Queen and Crown.
And now that his glad presence did asswage
That fearful Tempest in the North did rage:
May those Frog-vapours in the Irish Sky
Be scatter'd by the Beams of Majesty,
That the Hybernian Lyre give such a sound,
May on our Coasts with joyful Eccho's bound.
That fearful Tempest in the North did rage:
May those Frog-vapours in the Irish Sky
Be scatter'd by the Beams of Majesty,
That the Hybernian Lyre give such a sound,
May on our Coasts with joyful Eccho's bound.
And when this fatal Planet leaves to lowr,
Which too too long on Monarchies doth powr
His direful influence, may Peace once more
Descend from Heaven on our tottering shore,
And ride in triumph both on Land and Main,
And with her Milk-white Steeds draw CHARLES his Wain:
That so for those Saturnian times of old,
An Age of Perl may come in lieu of Gold.
Which too too long on Monarchies doth powr
His direful influence, may Peace once more
Descend from Heaven on our tottering shore,
And ride in triumph both on Land and Main,
And with her Milk-white Steeds draw CHARLES his Wain:
That so for those Saturnian times of old,
An Age of Perl may come in lieu of Gold.
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Vertu still guide his course; and if there be
A thing as Fortune Him accompany.
May no ill Genius haunt him, but by's side
The best protecting-Angel ever bide.
A thing as Fortune Him accompany.
May no ill Genius haunt him, but by's side
The best protecting-Angel ever bide.
May He go on to vindicate the right
Of Holy things, and make the Temple bright,
To keep that Faith, that sacred Truth entire,
Which he receiv'd from Solomon his Sire:
And since we all must hence by th' Ir'n Decree
Stamp'd in the Black Records of Destiny,
Of Holy things, and make the Temple bright,
To keep that Faith, that sacred Truth entire,
Which he receiv'd from Solomon his Sire:
And since we all must hence by th' Ir'n Decree
Stamp'd in the Black Records of Destiny,
Late may his Life, his Glory nere wear out,
Till the great year of Plato wheel about.
Till the great year of Plato wheel about.
| Poems On several Choice and Various Subjects | |