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, 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. That saw the troubled fea, and fhivering fled, The high, huge-bellied mountains skip like rams Ps. lxxxviii. v. 20. Whom thou rememberest no more, Doft never more regard: Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er, Thou in the lowest pit profound Where thickest darkness hovers round, Wilt thou do wonders on the dead? Shall the deceas'd arise, And praise thee from their loathfome bed, On whom the grave hath hold? Ibid. v. 65. Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow, 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 That glaffy floods from rugged rocks can crush, 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. Who with his miracles doth make Amazed heav'n and earth to shake. Who by his wisdom did create The painted heav'ns fo full of state. 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 |