Poems on Several Occasions With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. By Mrs. Elizabeth Tollet. The Second Edition |
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On the Thunder-Storm, June 1726.
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 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
On the Thunder-Storm, June 1726.
Parcus Deorum cultor ------
What Stores of Flame and crackling Nitre lye,
When o'er our Heads the sable Clouds impend,
And Bursts of Thunder all the Concave rend;
When Forests, Mortals, and the lofty Spires
Of sacred Temples feel the darted Fires,
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Till with the World the Controversy end:
Dispute th' Effect of an almighty Hand,
Yet inly tremble at the forky Brand:
No Art your conscious Terrors can remove,
When God majestic thunders from above.
But when again he calms the troubled Sky
Secure to Causes natural you fly:
The formidable Voice of Heaven despise;
And think yourselves the only brave and wise.
Mistaken Fools! 'twas he assign'd to all
That universal Law we Nature call.
He bad sulphureous Particles aspire,
To float in Air, and agitate to Fire;
He guides their Fury and directs the Blow,
That menaces the guilty World below.
At his Command the livid Flames are hurl'd,
Trembles the solid Basis of the World;
Black Smoak and ruddy Fire together roll
From Ætna's Top, and Rocks beneath the Pole:
The central Deep refunds its wat'ry Stores;
And with redoubled Rage the vast Atlantic roars.
Nor only Matter his Decrees obeys;
The various Turns of human Kind he sways:
No giddy Chance controuls our earthly Ball,
By him alternate Empires rise or fall;
'Tis his alone or to depose or crown,
To raise the Mean, or bring the Lofty down.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |