THE COMPLAINT.

IN a deep vision's intellectual scene,
Beneath a bower for sorrow made,
Th' uncomfortable shade

Of the black yew's unlucky green,
Mixt with the mourning willow's careful grey,
Where reverend Cham cuts out his famous way,
The melancholy Cowley lay:

And lo! a Muse appear'd to 's closed sight,
(The Muses oft in lands of vision play)
Body'd, array'd, and seen, by an internal light.
A golden harp with silver strings she bore;
A wondrous hieroglyphick robe she wore,
In which all colours and all figures were,
That nature or that fancy can create,

That art can never imitate;

And with loose pride it wanton'd in the air.
In such a dress, in such a well-cloth'd dream,
She us❜d, of old, near fair Ismenus' stream,
Pindar, her Theban favourite, to meet;

A crown was on her head, and wings were on her feet.

She touch'd him with her harp, and rais'd him from the ground;

The shaken strings melodiously resound.

"Art thou return'd at last," said she,
"To this forsaken place and me?

"Thou prodigal! who didst so loosely waste
"Of all thy youthful years the good estate ;
"Art thou return'd here, to repent too late,
"And gather husks of learning up at last,
"Now the rich harvest-time of life is past,
"And winter marches on so fast?

"But, when I meant t' adopt thee for my son,
"And did as learn'd a portion assign,
"As ever any of the mighty Nine

"Had to their dearest children done; "When I resolv'd t'exalt thy' anointed name, "Among the spiritual lords of peaceful fame; "Thou changeling! thou, bewitch'd with noise and "show

"Wouldst into courts and cities from me go; "Wouldst see the world abroad, and have a share "In all the follies and the tumults there:

"Thou wouldst, forsooth, be something in a state, “And business thou wouldst find, and wouldst create: "Business! the frivolous pretence

"Of human lusts, to shake off innocence;

"Business! the grave impertinence;

"Business! the thing which I of all things hate; "Business! the contradiction of thy fate.

"Go, renegado! cast up thy account, "And see to what amount

"Thy foolish gains by quitting me :

"The sale of Knowledge, Fame, and Liberty, "The fruits of thy unlearn'd apostacy.

VOL. I.

"Thou thought'st, if once the publick storm were past,
"All thy remaining life should sun-shine be:
"Behold! the publick storm is spent at last,
"The sovereign's tost at sea no more,
"And thou, with all the noble company,
"Art got at last to shore.

"But, whilst thy fellow-voyagers I see
"All march'd up to possess the promis'd land,
"Thou still alone, alas! dost gaping stand
"Upon the naked beach, upon the barren sand!

"As a fair morning of the blessed spring, “After a tedious stormy night,

"Such was the glorious entry of our king;
"Enriching moisture dropp'd on every thing;
"Plenty he sow'd below, and cast about him light!
"But then, alas! to thee alone

"One of old Gideon's miracles was shown;
"For every tree and every herb around
"With pearly dew was crown'd,

"And upon all the quicken'd ground

"The fruitful seed of heaven did brooding lie, "And nothing but the Muse's fleece was dry.

"It did all other threats surpass,

"When God to his own people said

[led)

"(The men whom through long wanderings he had

"That he would give them ev❜n a heaven of brass: They look'd up to that heaven in vain,

"That bounteous heaven, which God did not re"strain

"Upon the most unjust to shine and rain.

The Rachel, for which twice seven years and

66 more

"Thou didst with faith and labour serve, "And didst (if faith and labour can) deserve, "Though she contracted was to thee, "Given to another, who had store "Of fairer and of richer wives before, "And not a Leah left, thy recompence to be! "Go on: twice seven years more thy fortune try; "Twice seven years more God in his bounty may "Give thee, to fling away

"Into the court's deceitful lottery:

"But think how likely 't is that thou, "With the dull work of thy unwieldy plough, "Shouldst in a hard and barren season thrive, "Should even able be to live;

"Thou, to whose share so little bread did fall, "In the miraculous year when manna rain'd on all.”

Thus spake the Muse, and spake it with a smile,

That seem'd at once to pity and revile.

And to her thus, raising his thoughtful head,

The melancholy Cowley said

"Ah, wanton foe! dost thou upbraid

"The ills which thou thyself hast made? "When in the cradle innocent I lay, "Thou, wicked spirit! stolest me away,

"And my abused soul didst bear

"Into thy new-found worlds, I know not where,

}

"And ever since I strive in vain

"My ravish'd freedom to regain; "Still I rebel, still thou dost reign; "Lo! still in verse against thee I complain. "There is a sort of stubborn weeds,

"Which, if the earth but once, it ever, breeds;
"No wholesome herb can near them thrive,
"No useful plant can keep alive:

"The foolish sports I did on thee bestów,
"Make all my art and labour fruitless now;
"Where once such fairies dance, no grass doth
66 ever grow.

"When my new mind had no infusion known, "Thou gav'st so deep a tincture of thine own, "That ever since I vainly try

}

"To wash away th' inherent dye: "Long work perhaps may spoil thy colours quite, "But never will reduce the native white:

"To all the ports of honour and of gain.
"I often steer my course in vain;

"Thy gale comes cross, and drives me back again..
"Thou slacken'st all my nerves of industry,
"By making them so oft to be
"The tinkling strings of thy loose minstrelsy.
"Whoever this world's happiness would see,
"Must as entirely cast-off thee,
"As they who only heaven desire
"Do from the world retire.

"This was my error, this my gross mistake, "Myself a demi-votary to make.