9. Through sorrow and affliction great,
Mine eyes grow dim and dead:
Lord, all the day I thee entreat,
My hands to thee I spread.

10. Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?
Shall the deceased arise,

And praise thee from their loathsome bed
With pale and hollow eyes?

11 Shall they thy loving-kindness tell,
On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they, who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?

12. In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion?

13. But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,
Ere yet my life be spent ;

And up to thee my prayer doth hie,

Each morn, and thee prevent.

14. Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake,
And hide thy face from me,

15. That am already bruised, and shake
With terrour sent from thee?
Bruised and afflicted, and so low
As ready to expire;

While I thy terrours undergo,

Astonish'd with thine ire.

16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow;
Thy threatenings cut me through:

17. All day they round about me go;
Like waves they me pursue.

18. Lover and friend thou hast removed,
And sever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have loved,
And as in darkness are.

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV ®.

This and the following Psalm were done by the author at fifteen years old.

WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son,
After long toil, their liberty had won;
And past from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand;
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.

This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest performances. The first he afterwards translated into Greek.-T. WARTON.

That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath received the foil'.
The high, huge-bellied mountains skip, like rams
Amongst their ewes: the little hills, like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? And why skipt the mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his crystal fountains?
Shake, Earth; and at the presence be aghast
Of Him that ever was, and aye shall last;
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush!

10

15

PSALM CXXXVI.

LET us, with a gladsome mind,
Praise the Lord, for he is kind :
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
Let us blaze his name abroad,
For of gods he is the God:

For his, &c.

O, let us his praises tell,

Who doth the wrathful tyrants quell:

For his, &c.

Who, with his miracles, doth make
Amazed heaven and earth to shake:
For his, &c.

Who, by his wisdom, did create
The painted heavens so full of state :
For his, &c.

Who did the solid earth ordain
To rise above the watery plain :

For his, &c.

Who, by his all-commanding might,
Did fill the new-made world with light :
For his, &c.

And caused the golden-tressed sun
All the day long his course to run:
For his, &c.

The horned moon to shine by night,
Amongst her spangled sisters bright:
For his, &c.

He, with his thunder-clasping hand,
Smote the first-born of Egypt-land :
For his, &c.

As a faint host that hath received the foil.

"Foil" is defeat: a substantive used in the same sense by Harrington in his “Orlando Furioso," and by Shakspeare repeatedly.—TODD.

JOANNIS MILTONI

LONDINENSIS

POEMATA;

QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS VIGESIMUM CONSCRIPSIT.

Hæc quæ sequuntur de Auctore testimonia, tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quam supra se esse dicta, eo quod præclaro ingenio viri, necnon amici, ita fere solent laudare, ut omnia suis potius virtutibus, quam veritati congruentia, nimis cupide affingant; noluit tamen horum egregiam in se voluntatem non esse notam ; cum alii præsertim ut id faceret magnopere suaderent. Dum enim nimiæ laudis invidiam totis ab se viribus amolitur, sibique quod plus æquo est non attributum esse mavult, judicium interim hominum cordatorum atque illustrium quin summo sibi honori ducat, negare non potest.

JOANNES BAPTISTA MANSUS, MARCHIO VILLENSIS, NEAPOLITANUS,
AD JOANNEM MILTONIUM, ANGLUM:—

Ur mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, si pietas sic,
Non Anglus, verum hercle Angelus, ipse fores.

AD JOANNEM MILTONEM, ANGLUM, TRIPLICI POESEOS LAUREA CORONANDUM,
Græca nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusca, Epigramma Joannis Salsilli, Romani.
CEDE, Meles; cedat depressa Mincius urna;
Sebetus Tassum desinat usque loqui:

At Thamesis victor cunctis ferat altior undas,
Nam per te, Milto par tribus unus erit.

AD JOANNEM MILTONUM.

GRECIA Mæonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maronem;
Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem.-SELVAGGI.

AL SIGNOR GIO. MILTONI, NOBILE INGLESE.

ODE.

ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio

Perche di stelle intreccierò corona

Non più del Biondo Dio

La fronde eterna in Pindo, e in Elicona,
Diensi a merto maggior, maggiori i fregi,
A' celeste virtù celesti pregi.

Alla virtù sbandita

Danno ne i petti lor fido ricetto,
Quella gli è sol gradita,

Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto;
Ridillo tu, Giovanni, e mostra in tanto
Con tua vera virtù, vero il mio Canto.

Lungi dal patrio lido

Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama;
Ch' udio d' Helena il grido

Con aurea tromba rimbombar la fama,
E per poterla effigiare al paro

Dalle più belle Idee trasse il più raro.

Cosi l'ape ingegnosa

Trae con industria il suo liquor pregiato
Dal giglio e dalla rosa,

E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato;
Formano un dolce suon diverse chorde,
Fan varie voci melodia concorde.