StoryTitle("caps", "Lycidas") ?>
A Lament for a Friend Drowned in His Passage From
Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never-sear, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I com to pluck your Berries harsh and crude, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And with forc'd fingers rude, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Compels me to disturb your season due: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He must not flote upon his watry bear ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Without the meed of som melodious tear. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Begin, and somwhat loudly sweep the string. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So may som gentle Muse ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With lucky words favour my destin'd Urn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And as he passes turn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And bid fair peace be to my sable shrowd. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For we were nurst upon the self-same hill, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Together both, ere the high Lawns appear'd ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Under the opening eye-lids of the morn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We drove a field, and both together heard ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What time the Gray-fly winds her sultry horn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Batt'ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Oft till the Star that rose, at Ev'ning, bright ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Toward Heav'ns descent had slop'd his westering wheel. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Mean while the Rural ditties were not mute, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Temper'd to th'Oaten Flute; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rough Satyrs danc'd, and Fauns with clov'n heel, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the glad sound would not be absent long, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And old Damætas lov'd to hear our song. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But O the heavy change, now thou art gon, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now thou art gon, and never must return! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thee Shepherd, thee the Woods, and desert Caves, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With wilde Thyme and the gadding Vine o'regrown, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all their echoes mourn. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Willows, and the Hazle Copses green, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall now no more be seen, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fanning their joyous Leaves to thy soft layes. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As killing as the Canker to the Rose, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or Taint-worm to the weanling Herds that graze, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or Frost to Flowers, that their gay wardrop wear,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When first the White thorn blows; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Such, Lycidas, thy loss to Shepherds ear. ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Where were ye Nymphs when the remorseless deep ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Clos'd o're the head of your lov'd Lycidas? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For neither were ye playing on the steep, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where your old Bards, the famous Druids ly, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor yet where Deva spreads her wisard stream: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ay me, I fondly dream! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Had ye bin there—for what could that have don? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What could the Muse her self that Orpheus bore, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Muse her self, for her inchanting son ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Whom Universal nature did lament, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When by the rout that made the hideous roar, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His goary visage down the stream was sent, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Alas! what boots it with uncessant care ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And strictly meditate the thankles Muse, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Were it not better don as others use, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(That last infirmity of Noble mind) ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To scorn delights, and live laborious dayes; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the fair Guerdon when we hope to find, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And think to burst out into sudden blaze, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorréd shears, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And slits the thin spun life. But not the praise, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Phoebus repli'd, and touch'd my trembling ears; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor in the glistering foil ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Set off to th'world, nor in broad rumour lies, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But lives and spreds aloft by those pure eyes, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And perfet witnes of all judging Jove; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As he pronounces lastly on each deed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of so much fame in Heav'n expect thy meed. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd floud, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocall reeds, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That strain I heard was of a higher mood: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But now my Oate proceeds, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And listens to the Herald of the Sea ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That came in Neptune's plea, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He ask'd the Waves, and ask'd the Fellon winds, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And question'd every gust of rugged wings ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That blows from off each beakéd Promontory, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They knew not of his story, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And sage Hippotades their answer brings, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Ayr was calm, and on the level brine, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sleek Panope with all her sisters play'd. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was that fatall and perfidious Bark ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Built in th'eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Next Camus, reverend Sire, went footing slow, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His Mantle hairy, and his Bonnet sedge, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Like to that sanguine flower inscrib'd with woe. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ah; Who hath reft (quoth he) my dearest pledge? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Last came, and last did go, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Pilot of the Galilean lake, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Two massy Keyes he bore of metals twain, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(The Golden opes, the Iron shuts amain) ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He shook his Miter'd locks, and stern bespake, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How well could I have spar'd for thee, young swain, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Anow of such as for their bellies sake, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Creep and intrude, and climb into the fold? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of other care they little reck'ning make, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then how to scramble at the shearers feast, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And shove away the worthy bidden guest. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Blind mouthes! that scarce themselves know how to hold ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A Sheep-hook, or have learn'd ought els the least ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That to the faithfull Herdmans art belongs! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What recks it them? What need they? They are sped; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And when they list, their lean and flashy songs ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Grate on their scrannel Pipes of wretched straw, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Besides what the grim Woolf with privy paw ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Daily devours apace, and nothing sed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But that two-handed engine at the door, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more. ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Return Alpheus, the dread voice is past, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That shrunk thy streams; Return Sicilian Muse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And call the Vales, and bid them hither cast ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Their Bels, and Flourets of a thousand hues. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ye valleys low where the milde whispers use, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On whose fresh lap the swart Star sparely looks, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Throw hither all your quaint enameld eyes, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That on the green terf suck the honied showres, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And purple all the ground with vernal flowres. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bring the rathe Primrose that forsaken dies. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The tufted Crow-toe, and pale Gessamine, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The white Pink, and the Pansie freakt with jeat, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The glowing Violet. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Musk-rose, and the well attir'd Woodbine. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With Cowslips wan that hang the pensive hed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And every flower that sad embroidery wears: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Daffadillies fill their cups with tears,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To strew the Laureat Herse where Lycid lies. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For so to interpose a little ease, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ay me! Whilst thee the shores, and sounding Seas ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Wash far away, where ere thy bones are hurld, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or whether thou to our moist vows deny'd, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the great vision of the guarded Mount ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And, O ye Dolphins, waft the haples youth. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Weep no more, woful Shepherds weep no more, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sunk though he be beneath the watry floar, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So sinks the day-star in the Ocean bed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And yet anon repairs his drooping head, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And tricks his beams, and with new spangled Ore, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where other groves, and other streams along, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With Nectar pure his oozy Lock's he laves, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And hears the unexpressive nuptiall Song, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the blest Kingdoms meek of joy and love. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There entertain him all the Saints above, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In solemn troops, and sweet Societies ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That sing, and singing in their glory move, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now Lycidas the Shepherds weep no more; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hence forth thou art the Genius of the shore, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In thy large recompense, and shalt be good ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To all that wander in that perilous flood. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thus sang the uncouth Swain to th'Okes and rills, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While the still morn went out with Sandals gray, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He touch'd the tender stops of various Quills, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With eager thought warbling his Dorick lay: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And now the Sun had stretch'd out all the hills,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And now was dropt into the Western bay; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At last he rose, and twitch'd his Mantle blew: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To morrow to fresh Woods, and Pastures new.", "") ?>
Poet("John Milton", "1608–1674") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>