40

10. Wilt thou do wonders on the dead, Shall the deceas'd arife,

And praise thee from their loathfome bed

With pale and bollow eyes?

11. Shall they thy loving kindness tell On whom the grave bath bold,

45

14. Why wilt thou, Lord, my foul forfake, And hide thy face from me?

Bruis'd and afflicted, and fo low

As ready to expire,

While I thy terrors undergo

Aftonish'd with thine ire.

16. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow,
Thy threatnings cut me through:
17. All day they round about me go,

Like waves they me purfue.

18. Lover and friend thou haft remov'd,

And fever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have lov'd,

And as in darkness are.

65

70

A PARAPHRASE on PSALM CXIV.*

This and the following Pfalms were done by the Author at fifteen years old.

WH

HEN the bleft feed of Terah's faithful fon After long toil their liberty had won, And paft from Pharian fields to Canaan land, Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,

* This and the following Pfalm are Milton's earliest performances. The firft he afterwards tranflated into Greek. In the laft are fome very poetical expreffions, The golden-tressed fun, God's thunder-clafping hand, the moon's spangled fifters bright, above the reach of mortal eye, &c. I will here throw together fome of the moft ftriking ftanzas in Milton's PSALMS.

PSAL. lxxx. v. 41.

With her green shade that cover'd all,

The hills were over-fpread,

Her boughs as high as cedars tall

Advanc'd their lofty head.

Return, O God of Hofts, look down,

From heav'n, thy feat divine;

Behold us, but without a frown,

And vifit this thy vine.

Ps. lxxxi.

Jehovah's wonders were in Ifrael shown,
His praise and glory was in Ifrael known.

That saw the troubled fea, and fhivering fled,
And fought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear ftreams recoil,
As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.

The high, huge-bellied mountains skip like rams
Amongst their ews, the little hills like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? And why skipt the mountains?
Why turned Jordan tow'rd his crystal fountains?

Ps. lxxxviii. v. 20.

Whom thou rememberest no more,

Doft never more regard:

Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er,
Death's hideous house hath barr'd.

Thou in the lowest pit profound
Haft fet me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.-
Through forrow, and afflictions great,
Mine eye grows dim and dead:
Lord all the day I thee intreat,
My hands to thee I spread.

Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?

Shall the deceas'd arise,

And praise thee from their loathfome bed,
With pale and hollow eyes?
Shall They thy loving kindness tell

On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?
In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known;
Thy juftice in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion?

Ibid. v. 65.

Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow,
Thy threatenings cut me through;
All day they round about me go.

Like waves they me pursue.

13. Why fled the ocean? And why skip the mountains ?] The original is weakened. The queftion fhould have been asked by an addrefs, or an appeal, to the fea and mountains.

Shake

Shake Earth, and at the prefence be aghast
Of him that ever was, and ay fhall last,

That glaffy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make foft rills from fiery flint-ftones gufh.

L

PSALM CXXxvi.

ET us with a gladsome mind

Praife the Lord, for he is kind,

For his mercies ay indure,

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 heav'n and earth to shake.
For his &c.

Who by his wisdom did create

The painted heav'ns fo full of state.
For his &c.

Who did the folid earth ordain

To rife above the watry plain.

For his &c.

15. Shake Earth, and at the prefence be aghaft

15

10

15

20

Of Him, that ever was, and aye fhall laft.] He was now only fifteen.

17. That glafly floods from rugged rocks can crush.] So in CoMUS, V. 861.

Under the GLASSY, cool, tranflucent wave.

See PARAD. L. B. vii. 619.

22. Watry plain.] Pope, WINDSOR FOR. V. 146. And pikes the tyrants of the wATRY PLAINS.

See Note on Coм. V. 429.

Who