Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham. Edmund Waller

billows which her large sides knock;

       Whose rage restrainèd, foaming higher swells,

       And from her port the weary barge repels,

       Threat'ning to make her, forcèd out again,

       Repeat the dangers of the troubled main.

       Twice was the cable hurl'd in vain; the Fates

       Would not be movèd for our sister states;

       For England is the third successful throw,

       And then the genius of that land they know, 160

       Whose prince must be (as their own books devise)

       Lord of the scene where now his danger lies.

      Well sung the Roman bard, 'All human things

       Of dearest value hang on slender strings.'

       Oh, see the then sole hope, and, in design

       Of Heaven, our joy, supported by a line!

       Which for that instant was Heaven's care above

       The chain that's fixèd to the throne of Jove,

       On which the fabric of our world depends;

       One link dissolved, the whole creation ends. 170

      [1] 'St. Andero': St. Andrews. He had newly abandoned his suit for the Infanta.— [2] 'Arion sings': Alluding to the deliverance of Charles I., on his return from Spain, from a violent storm in the Bay of Biscay, October 1623. [3] 'Sort': a company. [4] 'Adventurous son': Phaeton. [5] Henrietta, afterwards Queen. [6] Venus.

OF HIS MAJESTY'S RECEIVING THE NEWS OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM'S

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      So earnest with thy God! can no new care,

       No sense of danger, interrupt thy prayer?

       The sacred wrestler, till a blessing given,

       Quits not his hold, but halting conquers Heaven;

       Nor was the stream of thy devotion stopp'd,

       When from the body such a limb was lopp'd,

       As to thy present state was no less maim,

       Though thy wise choice has since repair'd the same.

       Bold Homer durst not so great virtue feign

       In his best pattern:[2] of Patroclus slain, 10

       With such amazement as weak mothers use,

       And frantic gesture, he receives the news.

       Yet fell his darling by th'impartial chance

       Of war, imposed by royal Hector's lance;

       Thine, in full peace, and by a vulgar hand

       Torn from thy bosom, left his high command.

      The famous painter[3] could allow no place

       For private sorrow in a prince's face:

       Yet, that his piece might not exceed belief,

       He cast a veil upon supposed grief. 20

       'Twas want of such a precedent as this

       Made the old heathen frame their gods amiss.

       Their Phoebus should not act a fonder part

       For the fair boy,[4] than he did for his heart;

       Nor blame for Hyacinthus' fate his own,

       That kept from him wish'd death, hadst thou been known.

      He that with thine shall weigh good David's deeds,

       Shall find his passion, nor his love, exceeds: 28

       He cursed the mountains where his brave friend died,

       But let false Ziba with his heir divide;

       Where thy immortal love to thy bless'd friends,

       Like that of Heaven, upon their seed descends.

       Such huge extremes inhabit thy great mind,

       Godlike, unmoved, and yet, like woman, kind!

       Which of the ancient poets had not brought

       Our Charles's pedigree from Heaven, and taught

       How some bright dame, compress'd by mighty Jove,

       Produced this mix'd Divinity and Love?

      [1] 'Buckingham's death': Buckingham was murdered by Felton at

       Portsmouth, on the 23d of August 1628, while equipping a fleet for

       the relief of Rochelle. Lord Lindsey succeeded him. The king was at

       prayers when the news arrived, and had the resolution to disguise

       his emotion till they were over.

       [2] 'Pattern': Achilles.

       [3] 'Painter': Timanthes in his picture of Iphigenia.

       [4] 'Fair boy': Cyparissus.

ON THE TAKING OF SALLÈ.[1]

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      Of Jason, Theseus, and such worthies old,

       Light seem the tales antiquity has told;

       Such beasts and monsters as their force oppress'd,

       Some places only, and some times, infest.

       Sallè, that scorn'd all power and laws of men,

       Goods with their owners hurrying to their den,

       And future ages threat'ning with a rude

       And savage race, successively renew'd;

       Their king despising with rebellious pride,

       And foes profess'd to all the world beside; 10

       This pest of mankind gives our hero fame,

       And through the obliged world dilates his name.

       The prophet once to cruel Agag said,

       'As thy fierce sword has mothers childless made,

       So shall the sword make thine;' and with that word

       He hew'd the man in pieces with his sword.

      Just Charles like measure has return'd to these 17

       Whose Pagan hands had stain'd the troubled seas;

       With ships they made the spoiled merchant mourn;

       With ships their city and themselves are torn.

       One squadron of our winged castles sent,

       O'erthrew their fort, and all their navy rent;

       For, not content the dangers to increase,

       And act the part of tempests in the seas,

       Like hungry wolves, those pirates from our shore

       Whole flocks of sheep, and ravish'd cattle bore.

       Safely they might on other nations prey—

       Fools to provoke the sovereign of the sea!

       Mad Cacus so, whom like ill fate persuades,

       The herd of fair Alcmena's seed invades, 30

       Who for revenge, and mortals' glad relief,

       Sack'd the dark cave and crush'd that horrid thief.

      Morocco's monarch, wond'ring at this fact,

       Save that his presence his affairs exact,

       Had come in person to have seen and known

       The injured world's revenger and his own.