Solomon On The Vanity Of The World, A Poem. In Three Books. - Power. Book Iii. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB CDEEFF GGHIJJKKLLMM NBOOPQCCRSTTUUVVWW XXYYZZA2A2B2B2R A2A2C2D2D2E2E2F2F2F2 OORSB2B2VVG2G2G2G2H2 H2TTI2I2J2J2JJA2A2A2 K2L2A2A2A2M2N2O2O2WW P2Q2R2S2T2T2XXKKL2A2 A2BBA2A2O2O2U2R2R2V2 V2 W2W2KKA2A2SRA2A2BSSA 2A2RB2 KKSSZZTTF2F2A2A2 SSA2A2V2V2V2V2SS V2V2SSV2L2KU2O2A2A2 WWX2Y2Y2 A2A2V2V2A2A2Z2Z2U2U2 A2A2A3A3SSSA3A3F2B3A 2A2C3D3A2A2E3F3A2A2C C G3G3SSA2A2V2V2V2V2 A2A2B3B3H3H3H3 A2A2I3J3D2D2A2A2MME2 E2R2R2 O2O2 SSK3F2 SS E2E2 KKSSA2A2V2E2L3L3M3MH 3N3V2V2O3O3CC KK XXSSF2F2P3P3A2A2H2H2 D2D2L3L3WW SSA2A2A2Q3R3A2A2G2G2 G2KKSSI2I2 SSSSS3S3A2A2V2V2R3Q3 SS A2A2G2G2A2A2J3J3 SSSSF2F2A2A2SSA2A2 WWKK V2V2KKA2A2A2A2T3U3A2 A2V3V3SG2A2A2H3H3R3R 3V3V3A2A2A2A2GGSS W3W3A2A2WA2A2A2L3L3A 2A2 B3B3V2V2A2A2SV2A2A2A 2A2A2A2GGZ2Z2 A2A2KKZZA3X3Y3Z3A2A2 A2A2A2A2A2A2A2TTL3L3 XXA2A2SS SSTSSV2V2V2 X3J3D2D2A2A2A2A2A2R3 R3 A2A2A2A2SSA3J3 V2V2XXE3F3Z2Z2A2A2A2 V2V3V3A2A2V2V2H3A4KK SSWW T3U3A2A2A2A2X3X3B4B4 A2A2A2A2A2A2TTA2A2KK A2A2 MMS3S3C4C4A2A2D4D4V2 V2 SSSSO2O2 WW Z2Z2V2V2E3E4MMU2U2A2 A2E4E4E3KL2L3L3 A3A3C4C4CCF4G4H4H4T3 D2I4CD2D2 A2A2 D2D2SSV2V2A2A2I4CA2A 2 A2A2KKH3N3D2D2A2A2A2 A2KKV2V2A2A2O2U2ZZA3 A3V2V2A2A2U2O2A2A2 A2A2SSA2A2D2D2KKA2A2 V2V2A2A2 A2A2D2D2D2D2G2G2G2 A2A2D2D2A2A2A2 SSSSSSD2D2XXA2A2SG2 GGSSSSXX D2D2D2D2A2A2A2A2A2 MMG2G2V2V2SSD2D2A2A2 SSKS3SSA2A2 R2J4A2A2SSD2D2D2D2D2 SSSSD2D2A2A2 B4B4A2A2G2G2J4J4SSJ3 A3A2A2 A2A2A2A2P2Q2A2A2J3A3 T2A2A2A2TTSSA2A2 D2D2G2G2J4D2J4J4J4 KKA2A2V2V2 V2V2X3X3A2A2A2A2A2A2 A2A2A2 A2A2G2G2A2A2J3A3XXA2 A2A2A2D2D2D2O2U2D2D2 D2D2D2D2G2G2 SSD2D2XXA2A2H3H3SSG2 G2O2U2J4J4J4SSG G2G2V2V2V2A2A2D2KKV2 V2V2 K4Y3SSO2U2A2A2D2D2L2 KXXA3A3SSV2V2 A2A2SSA2A2KKA2A2V2V2 XX A2A2A2A2L4L4A2A2A3A3

The Argument	A
Solomon considers man through the several stages and conditions of life and concludes in general that we are all miserable He reflects more particularly upon the trouble and uncertainty of greatness and power gives some instances thereof from Adam down to himself and still concludes that All Is Vanity He reasons again upon life death and a future being finds human wisdom too imperfect to resolve his doubts has recourse to religion is informed by an angel what shall happen to himself his family and his kingdom till the redemption of Israel and upon the whole resolves to submit his inquiries and anxieties to the will of his Creator	B
	-
Come then my soul I call thee by that name	C
Thou busy thing from whence I know I am	D
For knowing that I am I know thou art	E
Since that must needs exist which can impart	E
But how thou camest to be or whence thy spring	F
For various of thee priests and poets sing	F
	-
Hearest thou submissive but a lowly birth	G
Some secret particles of finer earth	G
A plain effect which Nature must beget	H
As motion orders and as atoms meet	I
Companion of the body's good or ill	J
From force of instinct more than choice of will	J
Conscious of fear or valour joy or pain	K
As the wild courses of the blood ordain	K
Who as degrees of heat and cold prevail	L
In youth dost flourish and with age shalt fail	L
Till mingled with thy partner's latest breath	M
Thou fliest dissolved in air and lost in death	M
	-
Or if thy great existence would aspire	N
To causes more sublime of heavenly fire	B
Wert thou a spark struck off a separate ray	O
Ordain'd to mingle with terrestrial clay	O
With it condemn'd for certain years to dwell	P
To grieve its frailties and its pains to feel	Q
To teach it good and ill disgrace or fame	C
Pale it with rage or redden it with shame	C
To guide its actions with informing care	R
In peace to judge to conquer in the war	S
Render it agile witty valiant sage	T
As fits the various course of human age	T
Till as the earthly part decays and falls	U
The captive breaks her prison's mouldering walls	U
Hovers awhile upon the sad remains	V
Which now the pile or sepulchre contains	V
And thence with liberty unbounded flies	W
Impatient to regain her native skies	W
	-
Whate'er thou art where'er ordain'd to go	X
Points which we rather may dispute than know	X
Come on thou little inmate of this breast	Y
Which for thy sake from passions'l divest	Y
For these thou say'st raise all the stormy strife	Z
Which hinder thy repose and trouble life	Z
Be the fair level of thy actions laid	A2
As temperance wills and prudence may persuade	A2
By thy affections undisturb'd and clear	B2
Guided to what may great or good appear	B2
And try if life be worth the liver's care	R
	-
Amass'd in man there justly is beheld	A2
What through th whole creation has excell'd	A2
The angel's forecast and intelligence	C2
Say from these glorious seeds what harvest flows	D2
Recount our blessings and compare our woes	D2
In its true light let clearest reason see	E2
The man dragg'd out to act and forced to be	E2
Helpless and naked on a woman's knees	F2
To be exposed or rear'd as she may please	F2
Feel her neglect and pine from her disease	F2
His tender eye by too direct a ray	O
Wounded and flying from unpractised day	O
His heart assaulted by invading air	R
And beating fervent to the vital war	S
To his young sense how various forms appear	B2
That strike this wonder and excite his fear	B2
By his distortions he reveals his pains	V
He by his tears and by his sighs complains	V
Till time and use assist the infant wretch	G2
By broken words and rudiments of speech	G2
His wants in plainer characters to show	G2
And paint more perfect figures of his wo	G2
Condemn'd to sacrifice his childish years	H2
To babbling ignorance and to empty fears	H2
To pass the riper period of his age	T
Acting his part upon a crowded stage	T
To lasting toils exposed and endless cares	I2
To open dangers and to secret snares	I2
To malice which the vengeful foe intends	J2
And the more dangerous love of seeming friends	J2
His deeds examined by the people's will	J
Prone to forget the good and blame the ill	J
Or sadly censured in their cursed debate	A2
Who in the scorner's or the judge's seat	A2
Dare to condemn the virtue which they hate	A2
Or would he rather leave this frantic scene	K2
And trees and beasts prefer to courts and men	L2
In the remotest wood and lonely grot	A2
Certain to meet that worst of evils thought	A2
Different ideas to his memory brought	A2
Some intricate as are the pathless woods	M2
Impetuous some as the descending floods	N2
With anxious doubts with raging passions torn	O2
No sweet companion near with whom to mourn	O2
He hears the echoing rock return his sighs	W
And from himself the frighted hermit flies	W
	-
Thus through what path soe'er of life we rove	P2
Rage companies our hate and grief our love	Q2
Vex'd with the present moment's heavy gloom	R2
Why seek we brightness from the years to come	S2
Disturb'd and broken like a sick man's sleep	T2
Our troubled thoughts to distant prospects leap	T2
Desirous still what flies us to o'ertake	X
For hope is but the dream of those that wake	X
But looking back we see the dreadful train	K
Of woes anew which were we to sustain	K
We should refuse to tread the path again	L2
Still adding grief still counting from the first	A2
Judging the latest evil still the worst	A2
And sadly finding each progressive hour	B
Heighten their number and augment their power	B
Till by one countless sum of woes oppress'd	A2
Hoary with cares and ignorant of rest	A2
We find the vital springs relax'd and worn	O2
Compell'd our common impotence to mourn	O2
Thus through the round of age to childhood we return	U2
Reflecting find that naked from the womb	R2
We yesterday came forth that in the tomb	R2
Naked again we must to morrow lie	V2
Born to lament to labour and to die	V2
	-
Pass we the ills which each man feels or dreads	W2
The weight or fall'n or hanging o'er our heads	W2
The bear the lion terrors of the plain	K
The sheepfold scatter'd and the shepherd slain	K
The frequent errors of the pathless wood	A2
The giddy precipice and the dangerous flood	A2
The noisome pestilence that in open war	S
Terrible marches through the mid way air	R
And scatters death the arrow that by night	A2
Cuts the dank mist and fatal wings its flight	A2
The billowing snow and violence of the shower	B
That from the hills disperse their dreadful store	S
And o'er the vales collected ruin pour	S
The worm that gnaws the ripening fruit sad guest	A2
Canker or locust hurtful to infest	A2
The blade while husks elude the tiller's care	R
And eminence of want distinguishes the year	B2
	-
Pass we the slow disease and subtile pain	K
Which our weak frame is destined to sustain	K
The cruel stone with congregated war	S
Tearing his bloody way the cold catarrh	S
With frequent impulse and continued strife	Z
Weakening the wasted seeds of irksome life	Z
The gout's fierce rack the burning fever's rage	T
The sad experience of decay and age	T
Herself the sorest ill while death and ease	F2
Oft and in vain invoked or to appease	F2
Or end the grief with hasty wings recede	A2
From the vex'd patient and the sickly bed	A2
	-
Nought shall it profit that the charming fair	S
Angelic softest work of Heaven draws near	S
To the cold shaking paralytic hand	A2
Senseless of Beauty's touch or Love's command	A2
No longer apt or able to fulfil	V2
The dictates of its feeble master's will	V2
Nought shall the psaltery and the harp avail	V2
The pleasing song or well repeated tale	V2
When the quick spirits their warm march forbear	S
And numbing coldness has unbraced the ear	S
	-
The verdant rising of the flowery hill	V2
The vale enamell'd and the crystal rill	V2
The ocean rolling and the shelly shore	S
Beautiful objects shall delight no more	S
When the lax'd sinews of the weaken'd eye	V2
Day follows night the clouds return again	L2
After the falling of the latter rain	K
But to the aged blind shall ne'er return	U2
Grateful vicissitude he still must mourn	O2
The sun and moon and every starry light	A2
Eclipsed to him and lost in everlasting night	A2
	-
Behold where Age's wretched victim lies	W
See his head trembling and his half closed eyes	W
Frequent for breath his panting bosom heaves	X2
To broken sleeps his remnant sense he gives	Y2
And only by his pains awaking finds he lives	Y2
	-
Loosed by devouring Time the silver cord	A2
Dissever'd lies unhonour'd from the board	A2
The crystal urn when broken is thrown by	V2
And apter utensils their place supply	V2
These things and thou must share one equal lot	A2
Die and be lost corrupt and be forgot	A2
While still another and another race	Z2
Shall now supply and now give up the place	Z2
From earth all came to earth must all return	U2
Frail as the cord and brittle as the urn	U2
	-
But the terror of these ills suppress'd	A2
And view we man with health and vigour bless'd	A2
Home he returns with the declining sun	A3
His destined task of labour hardly done	A3
Goes forth again with the ascending ray	S
Again his travail for his bread to pay	S
And find the ill sufficient to the day	S
Haply at night he does with honour shun	A3
A widow'd daughter or a dying son	A3
His neighbour's offspring he to morrow sees	F2
And doubly feels his want in their increase	B3
The next day and the next he must attend	A2
His foe triumphant or his buried friend	A2
In every act and turn of life he feels	C3
Public calamities or household ills	D3
The due reward to just desert refused	A2
The trust betray'd the nuptial bed abused	A2
The judge corrupt the long depending cause	E3
And doubtful issue of misconstrued laws	F3
The crafty turns of a dishonest state	A2
And violent will of the wrong doing great	A2
The venom'd tongue injurious to his fame	C
Which nor can wisdom shun nor fair advice reclaim	C
	-
Esteem we these my friend event and chance	G3
Produced as atoms form their fluttering dance	G3
Or higher yet their essence may we draw	S
From destined order and eternal law	S
Again my Muse the cruel doubt repeat	A2
Spring they I say from accident or fate	A2
Yet such we find they are as can control	V2
The servile actions of our wavering soul	V2
Can fright can alter or can chain the will	V2
Their ills all built on life that fundamental ill	V2
	-
O fatal search in which the labouring mind	A2
Still press'd with weight of wo still hopes to find	A2
A shadow of delight a dream of peace	B3
From years of pain one moment of release	B3
Hoping at least she may herself deceive	H3
Against experience willing to believe	H3
Desirous to rejoice condemn'd to grieve	H3
	-
Happy the mortal man who now at last	A2
Has through this doleful vale of misery pass'd	A2
Who to his destined stage has carried on	I3
The tedious load and laid his burden down	J3
Whom the cut brass or wounded marble shows	D2
Victor o'er Life and all her train of woes	D2
He happier yet who privileged by Fate	A2
To shorter labour and a lighter weight	A2
Received but yesterday the gift of breath	M
Order'd to morrow to return to death	M
But O beyond description happiest he	E2
Who ne'er must roll on life's tumultuous sea	E2
Exempt must never force the teeming womb	R2
Nor see the sun nor sink into the tomb	R2
	-
Who breathes must suffer and who thinks must mourn	O2
And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born	O2
	-
Yet in thy turn thou frowning Preacher hear	S
Are not these general maxims too severe	S
Say cannot power secure its owner's bliss	K3
Are victors bless'd with fame or kings with ease	F2
	-
I tell thee life is but one common care	S
And man was born to suffer and to fear	S
	-
But is no rank no station no degree	E2
From this contagious taint of sorrow free	E2
	-
None mortal none yet in a bolder strain	K
Let me this melancholy truth maintain	K
But hence ye worldly and profane retire	S
For I adapt my voice and raise my lyre	S
To notions not by vulgar ear received	A2
Yet still must covet life and be deceived	A2
Your very fear of death shall make you try	V2
To catch the shade of immortality	E2
Wishing on earth to linger and to save	L3
Part of its prey from the devouring grave	L3
To those who may survive ye to bequeath	M3
Something entire in spite of time and death	M
A fancied kind of being to retrieve	H3
And in a book or from a building live	N3
False hope vain labour let some ages fly	V2
The dome shall moulder and the volume die	V2
Wretches still taught still will ye think it strange	O3
That all the parts of this great fabric change	O3
Quit their high station and primeval frame	C
And lose their shape their essence and their name	C
	-
Reduce the song our hopes our joys are vain	K
Our lot is sorrow and our portion pain	K
	-
What pause from wo what hopes of comfort bring	X
The name of wise or great of judge or king	X
What is a king a man condemn'd to bear	S
The public burden of the nation's care	S
Now crown'd some angry faction to appease	F2
Now falls a victim to the people's ease	F2
From the first blooming of his ill taught youth	P3
Nourish'd flattery and estranged from truth	P3
At home surrounded by a servile crowd	A2
Prompt to abuse and in detraction loud	A2
Abroad begirt with men and swords and spears	H2
His very state acknowledging his fears	H2
Marching amidst a thousand guards he shows	D2
His secret terror of a thousand foes	D2
In war however prudent great or brave	L3
To blind events and fickle chance a slave	L3
Seeking to settle what for ever flies	W
Sure of the toil uncertain of the prize	W
	-
But he returns with conquest on his brow	S
Brings up the triumph and absolves the vow	S
The captive generals to his car are tied	A2
The joyful citizens tumultuous tide	A2
Echoing his glory gratify his pride	A2
What is this triumph madness shouts and noise	Q3
One great collection of the people's voice	R3
The wretches he brings back in chains relate	A2
What may to morrow be the victor's fate	A2
The spoils and trophies borne before him show	G2
National loss and epidemic wo	G2
Various distress which he and his may know	G2
Does he not mourn the valiant thousands slain	K
The heroes once the glory of the plain	K
Left in the conflict of the fatal day	S
Or the wolf's portion or the vulture's prey	S
Does he not weep the laurel which he wears	I2
Wet with the soldiers' blood and widows tears	I2
	-
See where he comes the darting of the war	S
See millions crowding round the gilded car	S
In the vast joys of this ecstatic hour	S
And full fruition of successful power	S
One moment and one thought might let him scan	S3
The various turns of life and fickle state of man	S3
Are the dire images of sad distrust	A2
And popular change obscured amid the dust	A2
That rises from the victor's rapid wheel	V2
Can the loud clarion or shrill life repel	V2
The inward cries of Care can Nature's voice	R3
Plaintive be drown'd or lessen'd in the noise	Q3
Though shouts as thunder loud afflict the air	S
Stun the birds now released and shake the ivory chair	S
	-
Yon crowd he might reflect yon joyful crowd	A2
Pleased with my honours in my praise loud	A2
Should fleeting victory to the vanquish'd go	G2
Should she depress my arms and raise the foe	G2
Would for that foe with equal ardour wait	A2
At the high palace or the crowded gate	A2
With restless rage would pull my statues down	J3
And cast the brass anew to his renown	J3
	-
O impotent desire of worldly sway	S
That I who make the triumph of to day	S
May of to morrow's pomp one part appear	S
Ghastly with wounds and lifeless on the bier	S
Then vileness of mankind then of all these	F2
Whom my dilated eye with labour sees	F2
Would one alas repeat me good or great	A2
Wash my pale body or bewail my fate	A2
Or march'd I chain'd behind the hostile car	S
The victor's pastime and the sport of war	S
Would one would one his pitying sorrow lend	A2
Or be so poor to own he was my friend	A2
	-
Avails it then O Reason to be wise	W
To see this cruel scene with quicker eyes	W
To know with more distinction to complain	K
And have superior sense in feeling pain	K
	-
Let us resolve that roll with strictest eye	V2
Where safe from time distinguish'd actions lie	V2
And judge if greatness be exempt from pain	K
Or pleasure ever may with power remain	K
Adam great type for whom the world was made	A2
The fairest blessing to his arms convey'd	A2
A charming wife and air and sea and land	A2
And all that move therein to his command	A2
Render'd obedient say my pensive Muse	T3
What did these golden promises produce	U3
Scarce tasting life he was of joy bereaved	A2
One day I think in Paradise he lived	A2
Destined the next his journey to pursue	V3
Where wounding thorns and cursed thistles grew	V3
Ere yet he earns his bread adown his brow	S
Inclined to earth his labouring sweat must flow	G2
His limbs must ache with daily toils oppress'd	A2
Ere long wish'd night brings necessary rest	A2
Still viewing with regret his darling Eve	H3
He for her follies and his own must grieve	H3
Bewailing still afresh their hapless choice	R3
His ear oft frighted with the imaged voice	R3
Of Heaven when first it thundere'd oft his view	V3
Aghast as when the infant lightning flew	V3
And the stern cherub stopp'd the fatal road	A2
Arm'd with the flames of an avenging God	A2
His younger son on the polluted ground	A2
First fruit of death lies plaintive of a wound	A2
Given by a brother's hand his eldest birth	G
Flies mark'd by Heaven a fugitive o'er earth	G
Yet why these sorrows heap'd upon the sire	S
Becomes nor man nor angel to inquire	S
	-
Each age sinn'd on and guild advanced with time	W3
The son still added to the father's crime	W3
Till God arose and great in anger said	A2
Lo it repenteth me that man was made	A2
And from your deep abyss ye waters rise	W
The frighted angels heard th' Almighty Lord	A2
And o'er the earth from wrathful vials pour'd	A2
Tempests and storm obedient to his word	A2
Meantime his providence to Noah gave	L3
The guard of all that he design'd to save	L3
Exempt from general doom the patriarch stood	A2
Contemn'd the waves and triumph'd o'er the flood	A2
	-
The winds fall silent and the waves decrease	B3
The dove brings quiet and the clive peace	B3
Yet still his heart does inward sorrow feel	V2
Which faith alone forbids him to reveal	V2
If on the backward world his views are cast	A2
'Tis death diffused and universal waste	A2
Present sad prospect can he ought descry	S
But what affects his melancholy eye	V2
The beauties of the ancient fabric lost	A2
In chains of craggy hill or lengths of dreary coast	A2
While to high heaven his pious breathings turn'd	A2
Weeping he hoped and sacrificing mourn'd	A2
When of God's image only eight he found	A2
Snatch'd from the watery grave and saved from nations drown'd	A2
And of three sons the future hopes of earth	G
The seed whence empires must receive their birth	G
One he foresees excluded heavenly grace	Z2
And mark'd with curses fatal to his race	Z2
	-
Abraham potent prince the friend of God	A2
Of human ills must bear the destined load	A2
By blood and battles must his power maintain	K
And slay the monarchs ere he rules the plain	K
Must deal just portions of a servile life	Z
To a proud handmaid and a peevish wife	Z
Must with the mother leave the weeping son	A3
In want to wander and in wilds to groan	X3
Must take his other child his age's hope	Y3
To trembling Moriah's melancholy top	Z3
Order'd to drench his knife in filial blood	A2
Destroy his heir or disobey his God	A2
	-
Moses beheld that God but how beheld	A2
The Deity in radiant beams conceal'd	A2
And clouded in a deep abyss of light	A2
While present too severe for human sight	A2
Nor staying longer than one swift wing'd night	A2
The following days and months and years decreed	A2
To fierce encounter and to toilsome deed	A2
His youth with wants and hardships must engage	T
Plots and rebellions must disturb his age	T
Some Corah still arose some rebel slave	L3
Prompter to sink the state than he to save	L3
And Israel did his rage so far provoke	X
That what the Godhead wrote the prophet broke	X
His voice scarce heard his dictates scarce believed	A2
In camps in arms in pilgrimage he lived	A2
And died obedient to severest law	S
Forbid to tread the Promised land he saw	S
	-
My father's life was one long line of care	S
A scene of danger and a state of war	S
The bear's rough gripe and foaming lion's rage	T
By various turns his threaten'd youth must fear	S
Goliath's lifted sword and Saul's emitted spear	S
Forlorn he must and persecuted fly	V2
Climb the steep mountain in the cavern lie	V2
And often ask and be refused to die	V2
	-
For ever from his manly toils are known	X3
The weight of power and anguish of a crown	J3
What tongue can speak the restless monarch's woes	D2
When God and Nathan were declared his foes	D2
When every object his offence reviled	A2
The husband murder'd and the wife defiled	A2
The parent's sins impress'd upon the dying child	A2
What heart can think the grief which he sustain' d	A2
When the King's crime brought vengeance on the land	A2
And the inexorable prophet's voice	R3
Give famine plague or war and bid him fix his choice	R3
	-
He died and oh may no reflection shed	A2
Its poisonous venom on the royal dead	A2
Yet the unwilling truth must be express'd	A2
Which long has labour'd in this pensive breast	A2
Dying he added to my weight of care	S
He made me to his crimes undoubted heir	S
Left his unfinish'd murder to his son	A3
And Joab's blood entail'd on Judah's crown	J3
	-
Young as I was I hasted to fulfil	V2
The cruel dictates of my parent's will	V2
Of his fair deeds a distant view I took	X
But turn'd the tube upon his faults to look	X
Forgot his youth spent in his country's cause	E3
His care of right his reverence to the laws	F3
But could with joy his years of folly trace	Z2
Broken and old in Bathsheba's embrace	Z2
Could follow him where'er he stray'd from good	A2
And cite his sad example whilst I trod	A2
Paths open to deceit and track'd with blood	A2
With smiles I could betray with temper kill	V2
Soon in a brother could a rival view	V3
Watch all his acts and all his ways pursue	V3
In vain for life he to the altar fled	A2
Ambition and Revenge have certain speed	A2
Even there my soul even there he should have fell	V2
But that my interest did my rage conceal	V2
Doubling my crime I promise and deceive	H3
Purpose to slay whilst swearing to forgive	A4
Treaties persuasions sighs and tears are vain	K
With a mean lie cursed vengeance I sustain	K
Join fraud to force and policy to power	S
Till of the destined fugitive secure	S
In solemn state to parricide I rise	W
And as God lives this day my brother dies	W
	-
Be witness to my tears celestial Muse	T3
In vain I would forget in vain excuse	U3
Fraternal blood by my direction spilt	A2
In vain on Joab's head transfer the guilt	A2
The deed was acted by the subject's hand	A2
The sword was pointed by the King's command	A2
Mine was the murder it was mine alone	X3
Years of contrition must the crime atone	X3
Nor can my guilty soul expect relief	B4
But from a long sincerity of grief	B4
	-
With an imperfect hand and trembling heart	A2
Her love of truth superior to her art	A2
Already the reflecting Muse has traced	A2
The mournful figures of my actions past	A2
The pensive goddess has already taught	A2
How vain is hope and how vexatious thought	A2
From growing childhood to declining age	T
How tedious every step how gloomy every stage	T
This course of vanity almost complete	A2
Tired in the field of life I hope retreat	A2
In the still shades of death for dread and pain	K
And grief will find their shafts elanced in vain	K
And their points broke retorted from the head	A2
Safe in the grave and free among the dead	A2
	-
Yet tell me frighted reason what is death	M
Blood only stopp'd and interrupted breath	M
The utmost limit of a narrow span	S3
And end of motion which with life began	S3
As smoke that rises from the kindling fires	C4
Is seen this moment and the next expires	C4
As empty clouds by rising winds are lost	A2
Their fleeting forms scarce sooner found than lost	A2
So vanishes our state so pass our days	D4
So life but opens now and now decays	D4
The cradle and the tomb alas so nigh	V2
To live is scarce distinguish'd from to die	V2
	-
Cure of the miser's wish and coward's fear	S
Death only shows us what we knew was near	S
With courage therefore view the pointed hour	S
Dread not Death's anger but expect his power	S
Nor Nature's law with fruitless sorrow mourn	O2
But die O mortal man for thou wast born	O2
	-
Cautious through doubt by want of courage wise	W
To such advice the reasoner still replies	W
	-
Yet measuring all the long continued space	Z2
Every successive day's repeated race	Z2
Since Time first started from his pristine goal	V2
Till he had reach'd that hour wherein my soul	V2
Join'd to my body swell'd the womb I was	E3
At least I think so nothing must I pass	E4
Again to nothing when this vital breath	M
Ceasing consigns me o'er to rest and death	M
Must the whole man amazing thought return	U2
To the cold marble or contracted urn	U2
And never shall those particles agree	A2
That were in life this individual he	A2
But sever'd must they join the general mass	E4
Through other forms and shapes ordain'd to pass	E4
Nor thought nor image kept of what he was	E3
Does the great word that gave him sense ordain	K
That life shall never wake that sense again	L2
And will no power his sinking spirits save	L3
From the dark caves of death and chambers of the grave	L3
	-
Each evening I behold the setting sun	A3
With downward speed into the ocean run	A3
Yet the same light pass but some fleeting hours	C4
Exerts his vigour and renews his powers	C4
Starts the bright race again his constant flame	C
Rises and sets returning still the same	C
I mark the various fury of the winds	F4
These neither seasons guide nor order binds	G4
They now dilate and now contract their force	H4
Various their speed but endless is their course	H4
From his first fountain and beginning ooze	T3
Down to the sea each brook and torrent flows	D2
Though sundry drops or leave or swell the stream	I4
The whole still runs with equal pace the same	C
Still other waves supply the rising urns	D2
And the eternal flood no want of water mourns	D2
	-
Why then must man obey the sad decree	A2
Which subjects neither sun nor wind nor sea	A2
	-
A flower that does with opening morn arise	D2
And flourishing the day at evening dies	D2
A winged eastern blast just skimming o'er	S
The ocean's brow and sinking on the shore	S
A fire whose flames through crackling stubbles fly	V2
A meteor shooting from the summer sky	V2
A bowl adown the bending mountain roll'd	A2
A bubble breaking and a fable told	A2
A noontide shadow and a midnight dream	I4
Are emblems which with semblance apt proclaim	C
Our earthly course but O my Soul so fast	A2
Must life run off and death for ever last	A2
	-
This dark opinion sure is too confined	A2
Else whence this hope and terror of the mind	A2
Does something still and somewhere yet remain	K
Reward or punishment delight or pain	K
Say shall our relics second birth receive	H3
Sleep we to wake and only die to live	N3
When the sad wife has closed her husband's eyes	D2
And pierced the echoing vault with doleful cries	D2
Lies the pale corpse not yet entirely dead	A2
The spirit only from the body fled	A2
The grosser part of heat and motion void	A2
To be by fire or worm or time destroy'd	A2
The soul immortal substance to remain	K
Conscious of joy and capable of pain	K
And if her acts have been directed well	V2
While with her friendly clay she deign'd to dwell	V2
Shall she with safety reach her pristine seat	A2
Find her rest endless and her bliss complete	A2
And while the buried man we idly mourn	O2
Do angels joy to see his better half return	U2
But if she has deform'd this earthly life	Z
With murderous rapine and seditious strife	Z
Amazed repulsed and by those angels driven	A3
From the ethereal seat and blissful heaven	A3
In everlasting darkness must she lie	V2
Still more unhappy that she cannot die	V2
Amid two seas on one small point of land	A2
Wearied uncertain and amazed we stand	A2
On either side our thoughts incessant turn	U2
Forward we dread and looking back we mourn	O2
Losing the present in this dubious haste	A2
And lost ourselves betwixt the future and the past	A2
	-
These cruel doubts contending in my breast	A2
My reason staggering and my hopes oppress'd	A2
Once more I said once more I will inquire	S
What is this little agile pervious fire	S
This flattering motion which we call the Mind	A2
How does she act and where is she confined	A2
Have we the power to give her as we please	D2
Whence then those evils that obstruct our ease	D2
We happiness pursue we fly from pain	K
Yet the pursuit and yet the flight is vain	K
And while poor Nature labours to be bless'd	A2
By day with pleasure and by night with rest	A2
Some stronger power eludes our sickly will	V2
Dashes our rising hope with certain ill	V2
And makes us with reflective trouble see	A2
That all is destined which we fancy free	A2
	-
That power superior then which rules our mind	A2
Is his decree by human prayer inclined	A2
Will he for sacrifice our sorrows ease	D2
And can our tears reverse his firm decrees	D2
Then let religion aid where reason fails	D2
Throw loads of incense in to turn the scales	D2
And let the silent sanctuary show	G2
What from the babbling schools we may not know	G2
How man may shun or bear his destined part of wo	G2
	-
What shall amend or what absolve our fate	A2
Anxious we hover in a mediate state	A2
Betwixt infinity and nothing bounds	D2
Or boundless terms whose doubtful sense confounds	D2
Unequal thought whilst all we apprehend	A2
Is that our hopes must rise our sorrows end	A2
As our Creator deigns to be our friend	A2
	-
I said and instant bade the priests prepare	S
The ritual sacrifice and solemn prayer	S
Select from vulgar herds with garlands gay	S
A hundred bulls ascend the sacred way	S
The artful youth proceed to form the choir	S
They breathe the flute or strike the vocal wire	S
The maids in comely order next advance	D2
They beat the timbrel and instruct the dance	D2
Follows the chosen tribe from Levi sprung	X
Chanting by just return the holy song	X
Along the choir in solemn state they pass'd	A2
The anxious King came last	A2
The sacred hymn perform'd my promised vow	S
I paid and bowing at the altar low	G2
	-
Father of heaven I said and Judge of earth	G
Whose word call'd out this universe to birth	G
By whose kind power and influencing care	S
The various creatures move and live and are	S
But ceasing once that care withdrawn that power	S
They move alas and live and are no more	S
Omniscient Master omnipresent King	X
To thee to thee my last distress I bring	X
	-
Thou that canst still the raging of the seas	D2
Chain up the winds and bid the tempests cease	D2
Redeem my shipwreck'd soul from raging gusts	D2
Of cruel passion and deceitful lusts	D2
From storms of rage and dangerous rocks of pride	A2
Let thy strong hand this little vessel guide	A2
It was thy hand that made it through the tide	A2
Impetuous of this life let thy command	A2
Direct my course and bring me safe to land	A2
	-
If while this wearied flesh draws fleeting breath	M
Not satisfied with life afraid of death	M
It haply be thy will that I should know	G2
Glimpse of delight or pause from anxious wo	G2
From now from instant now great Sire dispel	V2
The clouds that press my soul from now reveal	V2
A gracious beam of light from now inspire	S
My tongue to sing my hand to touch the lyre	S
My open'd thought to joyous prospects raise	D2
And for thy mercy let me sing thy praise	D2
Or if thy will ordains I still shall wait	A2
Some new hereafter and a future state	A2
Permit me strength my weight of wo to bear	S
And raise my mind superior to my care	S
Let me howe'er unable to explain	K
The secret lab'rinths of thy ways to man	S3
With humble zeal confess thy awful power	S
Still weeping hope and wondering still adore	S
So in my conquest be thy might declared	A2
And for thy justice be thy name revered	A2
	-
My prayer scarce ended a stupendous gloom	R2
Darkens the air loud thunder shakes the dome	J4
To the beginning miracle succeed	A2
An awful silence and religious dread	A2
Sudden breaks forth a more than common day	S
The sacred wood which on the alter lay	S
Untouch'd unlighted glows	D2
Ambrosial odour such as never flows	D2
From Arab's gum or the Sabaean rose	D2
Does round the air evolving scents diffuse	D2
The holy ground is wet with heavenly dews	D2
Celestial music such Jessides' lyre	S
Such Miriam's timbrel would in vain require	S
Strikes to my thought through admiring ear	S
With ecstasy too fine and pleasure hard to bear	S
And lo what sees my ravish'd eye what feels	D2
My wondering soul an opening cloud reveals	D2
A heavenly form embodied and array'd	A2
With robes of light I heard the angel said	A2
	-
Cease Man of women born to hope relief	B4
From daily trouble and continued grief	B4
Thy hope of joy deliver to the wind	A2
Suppress thy passions and prepare thy mind	A2
Free and familiar with misfortune grow	G2
Be used to sorrow and inured to wo	G2
By weakening toil and hoary age o'ercome	J4
See thy decrease and hasting to thy tomb	J4
Leave to thy children tumult strife and war	S
Portions of toil and legacies of care	S
Send the successive ills through ages down	J3
And let each weeping father tell his son	A3
That deeper struck and more distinctly grieved	A2
He must augment the sorrows he received	A2
	-
The child to whose success thy hope is bound	A2
Ere thou art scarce interr'd or he is crown'd	A2
To lust of arbitrary sway inclined	A2
That cursed poison to the prince's mind	A2
Shall from thy dictates and his duty rove	P2
And lose his great defence his people's love	Q2
Ill counsell'd vanquish'd fugitive disgraced	A2
Shall mourn the fame of Jacob's strength effaced	A2
Shall sigh the King diminish'd and the crown	J3
With lessen'd rays descending to his son	A3
Shall see the wreaths his grandsire knew to reap	T2
By active toil and military sweat	A2
Rining incline their sickly leaves and shed	A2
Their falling honours from his giddy head	A2
By arms or prayer unable to assuage	T
Domestic horror and intestine rage	T
Shall from the victor and the vanquish'd fear	S
From Israel's arrow and from Judah's spear	S
Shall cast his wearied limbs on Jordan's flood	A2
By brothers' arms disturb'd and stain'd with kindred blood	A2
	-
Hence labouring years shall weep their destined race	D2
Charged with ill omens sully'd with disgrace	D2
Time by necessity compell'd shall go	G2
Through scenes of war and epochas of wo	G2
The empire lessen' d in a parted stream	J4
Shall lose its course	D2
Indulge thy tears the Heathen shall blaspheme	J4
Judah shall fall oppress'd by grief and shame	J4
And men shall from her ruins know her fame	J4
	-
New Egypts yet and second bonds remain	K
A harsher Pharaoh and a heavier chain	K
Again obedient to a dire command	A2
Thy captive sons shall leave the promised land	A2
Their name more low their servitude more vile	V2
Shall on Euphrates' bank renew the grief of Nile	V2
	-
These pointed spires that wound the ambient sky	V2
Inglorious change shall in destruction lie	V2
Low levell'd with the dust their heights unknown	X3
Or measured by their ruin Yonder throne	X3
For lasting glory built design'd the seat	A2
Of kings for ever bless'd for ever great	A2
Removed by the invader's barbarous hand	A2
Shall grace his triumph in a foreign land	A2
The tyrant shall demand yon' sacred load	A2
Of gold and vessels set apart to God	A2
Then by bile hands to common use debased	A2
Shall send them flowing round his drunken feast	A2
With sacrilegious taunt and impious jest	A2
	-
Twice fourteen ages shall their way complete	A2
Empires by various turns shall rise and set	A2
While thy abandon'd tribes shall only know	G2
A different master and a change of wo	G2
With downcast eyelids and with looks aghast	A2
Shall dread the future or bewail the past	A2
Afflicted Israel shall sit weeping down	J3
Fast by the streams where Babel's waters run	A3
Their harps upon the neighbouring willows hung	X
Nor joyous hymn encouraging their tongue	X
Nor cheerful dance their feet with toil oppress'd	A2
Their wearied limbs aspiring but to rest	A2
In the reflective stream the sighing bride	A2
Viewing her charms impair'd abash'd shall hide	A2
Her pensive head and in her languid face	D2
The bridegroom shall foresee his sickly race	D2
While ponderous fetters vex their close embrace	D2
With irksome anguish then your priests shall mourn	O2
Their long neglected feasts despair'd return	U2
And sad oblivion of their solemn days	D2
Thenceforth their voices they shall only raise	D2
Louder to weep By day your frighted seers	D2
Shall call for fountains to express their tears	D2
And wish their eyes were floods by night from dreams	D2
Of opening gulfs black storms and raging flames	D2
Starting amazed shall to the people show	G2
Emblems of heavenly wrath and mystic types of wo	G2
	-
The captives as their tyrant shall require	S
That they should breathe the song and touch the lyre	S
Shall say Can Jacob's servile race rejoice	D2
Untuned the music and disused the voice	D2
What can we play they shall discourse how sing	X
In foreign lands and to a barbarous king	X
We and our fathers from our childhood bred	A2
To watch the cruel victor's eye to dread	A2
The arbitrary lash to bend to grieve	H3
Outcast of mortal race can we conceive	H3
Image of ought delightful soft or gay	S
Alas when we have toil the longsome day	S
The fullest bliss our hearts aspire to know	G2
Is but some interval from active wo	G2
In broken rest and startling sleep to mourn	O2
Till morn the tyrant and the scourge return	U2
Bred up in grief can pleasure be our theme	J4
Our endless anguish does not nature claim	J4
Reason and sorrow are to us the same	J4
Alas with wild amazement we require	S
If idle Folly was not Pleasure's sire	S
Madness we fancy gave an ill timed birth	G
	-
This is the series of perpetual wo	G2
Which thou alas and thine are born to know	G2
Illustrious wretch repine not nor reply	V2
View not what Heaven ordains with reason's eye	V2
Too bright the object is the distance is too high	V2
The man who would resolve the work of fate	A2
May limit number and make crooked straight	A2
Stop thy inquiry then and curb thy sense	D2
'Tis God who must dispose and man sustain	K
Born to endure forbidden to complain	K
Thy sum of life must his decrees fufil	V2
What derogates from his command is ill	V2
And that alone is good which centres in his will	V2
	-
Yet that thy labouring senses may not droop	K4
Lost to delight and destitute of hope	Y3
Remark what I God's messenger aver	S
From him who neither can deceive nor err	S
The land at length redeem'd shall cease to mourn	O2
Shall from her sad captivity return	U2
Sion shall raise her long dejected head	A2
And in her courts the law again be read	A2
Again the glorious temple shall arise	D2
And with now lustre pierce the neighbouring skies	D2
The promised seat of empire shall again	L2
Cover the mountain and command the plain	K
And from thy race distinguish'd One shall spring	X
Greater in act than victor more than king	X
In dignity and power sent down from heaven	A3
To succour earth To him to him 'tis given	A3
Passion and care and anguish to destroy	S
Through him soft peace and plenitude of joy	S
Perpetual o'er the world redeem'd shall flow	V2
No more may man inquire or angel know	V2
	-
Now Solomon remembering who thou art	A2
Act through thy remnant life a decent part	A2
Go forth be strong with patience and with care	S
Perform and suffer to thyself severe	S
Gracious to others thy desires suppress'd	A2
Diffused thy virtues first of men be best	A2
Thy sum of duty let two words contain	K
O may they graven in thy heart remain	K
Be humble and be just The angel said	A2
With upward speed his agile wings he spread	A2
Whilst on the holy ground I prostrate lay	V2
By various doubts impell'd or to obey	V2
Or to object at length my mournful look	X
Heavenward erect determined thus I spoke	X
	-
Supreme all wise eternal Potentate	A2
Sole author sole disposer of our fate	A2
Enthroned in light and immortality	A2
Whom no man fully sees and none can see	A2
Original of Beings Power divine	L4
Since that I live that I think is thine	L4
Benign Creator let thy plastic hand	A2
Dispose its own effect let thy command	A2
Restore great Father thy instructed son	A3
And in my act may thy great will be done	A3

Matthew Prior

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<< Written In Montaignes Essays. Given To The Duke Of Shrewsbury In France, After The Peace Poem Solomon On The Vanity Of The World, A Poem. In Three Books. - Knowledge. Book I. Poem>>

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