Thalia Rediviva The Pass-times and Diversions of a Countrey-muse, In Choice Poems on several Occasions. With Some Learned Remains of the Eminent Eugenius Philalethes. Never made Publick till now [by Henry Vaughan] |
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To my worthy Friend, Mr. Henry Vaughan the Silurist.
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 | Thalia Rediviva |  |
To my worthy Friend, Mr. Henry Vaughan the Silurist.
See what thou wert! by what Platonick round
Art thou in thy first youth and Glories found!
Or from thy Muse does this Retrieve accrue,
Do's she which once inspir'd thee, now renew!
Bringing thee back those Golden years which time
Smooth'd to thy Lays and polisht with thy Rhyme.
Nor i'st to thee alone she do's convey
Such happy change, but bountiful as day
On whatsoever Reader she do's shine
She makes him like thee, and for ever thine.
Art thou in thy first youth and Glories found!
Or from thy Muse does this Retrieve accrue,
Do's she which once inspir'd thee, now renew!
Bringing thee back those Golden years which time
Smooth'd to thy Lays and polisht with thy Rhyme.
Nor i'st to thee alone she do's convey
Such happy change, but bountiful as day
On whatsoever Reader she do's shine
She makes him like thee, and for ever thine.
And first thy manu'al op'ning gives to see
Ecclipse and suff'rings burnish Majesty,
Where thou so artfully the draught hast made
That we best read the lustre in the shade,
And find our Sov'raign greater in that shroud:
So Lightning dazzles from its night and cloud;
So the first Light himself has for his Throne
Blackness, and Darkness his Pavilion.
Ecclipse and suff'rings burnish Majesty,
Where thou so artfully the draught hast made
That we best read the lustre in the shade,
And find our Sov'raign greater in that shroud:
So Lightning dazzles from its night and cloud;
So the first Light himself has for his Throne
Blackness, and Darkness his Pavilion.
Who can refuse thee company, or stay,
By thy next charming summons forc'd away,
If that be force which we can so resent
That only in its joys 'tis violent:
Upward thy Eagle bears us e're aware
Till above Storms and all tempestuous Air
We radiant Worlds with their bright people meet,
Leaving this little All beneath our feet.
But now the pleasure is too great to tell,
Nor have we other bus'ness than to dwell
As on the hallow'd Mount th' Apostles meant
To build and fix their glorious banishment.
Yet we must know and find thy skilful Vein
Shall gently bear us to our homes again;
By which descent thy former flight's impli'd
To be thy extasie and not thy pride.
And here how well do's the wise Muse demeane
Her self, and fit her song to ev'ry Scene!
Riot of Courts, the bloody wreaths of War,
Cheats of the Mart, and clamours of the Bar,
Nay, life it self thou dost so well express
Its hollow Joyes, and real Emptiness,
That Dorian Minstrel never did excite,
Or raise for dying so much appetite.
By thy next charming summons forc'd away,
If that be force which we can so resent
That only in its joys 'tis violent:
Upward thy Eagle bears us e're aware
Till above Storms and all tempestuous Air
We radiant Worlds with their bright people meet,
Leaving this little All beneath our feet.
But now the pleasure is too great to tell,
Nor have we other bus'ness than to dwell
As on the hallow'd Mount th' Apostles meant
To build and fix their glorious banishment.
Yet we must know and find thy skilful Vein
Shall gently bear us to our homes again;
To be thy extasie and not thy pride.
And here how well do's the wise Muse demeane
Her self, and fit her song to ev'ry Scene!
Riot of Courts, the bloody wreaths of War,
Cheats of the Mart, and clamours of the Bar,
Nay, life it self thou dost so well express
Its hollow Joyes, and real Emptiness,
That Dorian Minstrel never did excite,
Or raise for dying so much appetite.
Nor does thy other softer Magick move
Us less thy fam'd Etesia to love;
Where such a Character thou giv'st that shame
Nor envy dare approach the Vestal Dame:
So at bright Prime Idea's none repine,
They safely in th' Eternal Poet shine.
Us less thy fam'd Etesia to love;
Where such a Character thou giv'st that shame
Nor envy dare approach the Vestal Dame:
So at bright Prime Idea's none repine,
They safely in th' Eternal Poet shine.
Gladly th' Assyrian Phœnix now resumes
From thee this last reprizal of his Plumes;
He seems another more miraculous thing
Brighter of Crest, and stronger of his Wing;
Proof against Fate in spicy Urns to come,
Immortal past all risque of Martyrdome.
From thee this last reprizal of his Plumes;
He seems another more miraculous thing
Brighter of Crest, and stronger of his Wing;
Proof against Fate in spicy Urns to come,
Immortal past all risque of Martyrdome.
Nor be concern'd, nor fancy thou art rude
T' adventure from thy Cambrian solitude,
Best from those lofty Cliffs thy Muse does spring
Upwards, and boldly spreads her Cherub-wing.
T' adventure from thy Cambrian solitude,
Best from those lofty Cliffs thy Muse does spring
Upwards, and boldly spreads her Cherub-wing.
So when the Sage of Memphis would converse
With boding Skies, and th' Azure Universe,
He climbs his starry Pyramid, and thence
Freely sucks clean prophetique influence,
And all Serene, and rap't and gay he pries
Through the Æthereal volum's Mysteries,
Loth to come down, or ever to know more
The Nile's luxurious, but dull foggy shore.
With boding Skies, and th' Azure Universe,
He climbs his starry Pyramid, and thence
Freely sucks clean prophetique influence,
And all Serene, and rap't and gay he pries
Through the Æthereal volum's Mysteries,
Loth to come down, or ever to know more
The Nile's luxurious, but dull foggy shore.
I. W. A. M. Oxon.
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