folicit them from him.

Let the event guide itfelf which way it will, I fhall deferve of the age, by bringing into the light as true a birth, as the Mufes have brought forth fince our famous Spenfer wrote; whofe poems in these English ones are as rarely imitated, as sweetly excell'd. Reader, if thou art eagle-ey'd to cenfure their worth, I am not fearful to expose them to thy exacteft perufal.

3

POEMS on Several OCCASIONS.

O

1.

ANNO ÆTATIS 17.

On the death of a fair Infant, dying of a cough,

Ο

1.

Faireft flow'r no fooner blown but blasted, Soft filken primrose fading timelefly, Summer's chief honor, if thou hadft out-lafted Bleak Winter's force that made thy bloffom dry; For he being amorous on that lovely dye

That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss, But kill'd, alas, and then bewail'd his fatal blifs.

child.

6.

thought to kifs,

5

For

This elegy was not inferted in confequently a daughter of his the firft edition of the author's fifter Philips, and probably her firft poems printed in 1645, but was added in the fecond edition printed in 1673. It was compos'd in the year 1625, that being the 17th year of Milton's age. In fome editions the title runs thus, On the death of a fair Infant, a nephew of his, dying of a cough: but the fequel fhows plainly that the child was not a nephew, but a niece, and

But kill'd, alas, &c] Copied probably from this verse in Shakefpear's Venus and Adonis,

He thought to kifs him, and hath kill'd him fo.

B 2

8. For

II.

For fince grim Aquilo his charioteer
th' Athenian damfel got,

By boiftrous rape
He thought it touch'd his deity full near,
If likewife he fome fair one wedded not,

Thereby to wipe away th' infamous blot

'

10

Of long-uncoupled bed, and childlefs eld, [held. Which 'mongst the wanton Gods a foul reproach was III.*·

So mounting up in icy-pearled car,

Through middle empire of the freezing air

He wander'd long, till thee he fpy'd from far;
There ended was his queft, there ceas'd his care,
Down he defcended from his fnow-foft chair,

15

20

But all unwares with his cold-kind embrace Unhous'd thy virgin foul from her fair biding place.

8. For fince grim Aquilo &c] Boreas or Aquilo carried off by force Orithyia daughter of Erectheus king of Athens. Ovid. Met, VI. Fab. Milton hath invented this 9: fine fable of Winter's rape upon his fifter's daughter, on the fame grounds as that of Boreas on the daughter of Ereatheus, whom he ravith'd as the crofs'd over the fiver Ilyffus (as Apollodorus fays

Yet

lib. 3.) that is, fhe was drown'd in
a high wind croffing that river...
Richardfon.

12. th' infamous blot
Of long-uncoupled bed, and child-

lefs eld, &c] The author probably pronounced infamous with the middle fyllable long as it is in Latin. Eld is old age, a word used in innumerable places of Spenfer and our old writers. And in fay

IV.

Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate:
For fo Apollo, with unweeting hand,
Whilome did flay his dearly-loved mate,
Young Hyacinth born on Eurotas' ftrand,
Young Hyacinth the pride of Spartan land;
But then transform'd him to a purple flower:
Alack that fo to change thee Winter had no power.
V.

Yet can I not perfuade me thou art dead,

2.5

Or that thy corfe corrupts in earth's dark womb, 30
Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,

Hid from the world in a low delved tomb;
Could Heav'n for pity thee fo ftrictly doom?

Oh no! for fomething in thy face did shine
Above mortality, that show'd thou waft divine.

ing that long uncoupled bed and child-
lefs eld was held a reproach among
the wanton Gods, the poet feems to
allude particularly to the cafe of
Pluto, as reported by Claudian. De
Rapt. Prof. I. 32.

Dux Erebi quondam tumidas ex-
arfit in iras
Prælia moturus fuperis, quod fo-
lus egeret

35

VI.

Refolve me then, oh Soul moft surely bleft,
(If fo it be that thou these plaints doft hear)
Tell me bright Spirit where'er thou hovereft,
Whether above that high first-moving sphere,
Or in th' Elyfian fields (if such there were)

40

Oh fay me true, if thou wert mortal wight, And why from us fo quickly thou didst take thy flight.

VII.

Wert thou fome star which from the ruin'd roof
Of shak'd Olympus by mischance didft fall;
Which careful Jove in nature's true behoof
Took up, and in fit place did reinstall?
Or did of late earth's fons befiege the wall

45

Of