GET /poetry/collection
Get multiple random poems in one request. Perfect for building poetry feeds or discovery features.
count
optional
default: 5
Number of poems (1-10)
| Name | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
count |
No | 5 | Number of poems (1-10) |
curl "https://nordapi.ee/api/v1/poetry/collection?count=3"
{
"data": [
{
"author": "Edmund Spenser",
"line_count": "495",
"lines": [
"1",
"",
"Ye heavenly spirits, whose ashy cinders lie",
"Under deep ruins, with huge walls opprest,",
"But not your praise, the which shall never die",
"Through your fair verses, ne in ashes rest;",
"If so be shrilling voice of wight alive",
"May reach from hence to depth of darkest hell,",
"Then let those deep Abysses open rive,",
"That ye may understand my shreiking yell.",
"Thrice having seen under the heavens' vail",
"Your tomb's devoted compass over all,",
"Thrice unto you with loud voice I appeal,",
"And for your antique fury here do call,",
"The whiles that I with sacred horror sing,",
"Your glory, fairest of all earthly thing.",
"",
"",
"2",
"",
"Great Babylon her haughty walls will praise,",
"And sharpèd steeples high shot up in air;",
"Greece will the old Ephesian buildings blaze;",
"And Nylus' nurslings their Pyramids fair;",
"The same yet vaunting Greece will tell the story",
"Of Jove's great image in Olympus placed,",
"Mausolus' work will be the Carian's glory,",
"And Crete will boast the Labybrinth, now 'rased;",
"The antique Rhodian will likewise set forth",
"The great Colosse, erect to Memory;",
"And what else in the world is of like worth,",
"Some greater learnèd wit will magnify.",
"But I will sing above all monuments",
"Seven Roman Hills, the world's seven wonderments.",
"",
"",
"3",
"",
"Thou stranger, which for Rome in Rome here seekest,",
"And nought of Rome in Rome perceiv'st at all,",
"These same old walls, old arches, which thou seest,",
"Old Palaces, is that which Rome men call.",
"Behold what wreak, what ruin, and what waste,",
"And how that she, which with her mighty power",
"Tam'd all the world, hath tam'd herself at last,",
"The prey of time, which all things doth devour.",
"Rome now of Rome is th' only funeral,",
"And only Rome of Rome hath victory;",
"Ne ought save Tyber hastening to his fall",
"Remains of all: O world's inconstancy.",
"That which is firm doth flit and fall away,",
"And that is flitting, doth abide and stay.",
"",
"",
"4",
"",
"She, whose high top above the stars did soar,",
"One foot on Thetis, th' other on the Morning,",
"One hand on Scythia, th' other on the Moor,",
"Both heaven and earth in roundness compassing,",
"Jove fearing, lest if she should greater grow,",
"The old Giants should once again uprise,",
"Her whelm'd with hills, these seven hills, which be now",
"Tombs of her greatness, which did threat the skies:",
"Upon her head he heaped Mount Saturnal,",
"Upon her belly th' antique Palatine,",
"Upon her stomach laid Mount Quirinal,",
"On her left hand the noisome Esquiline,",
"And Cælian on the right; but both her feet",
"Mount Viminall and Aventine do meet.",
"",
"",
"5",
"",
"Who lists to see, what ever nature, art,",
"And heaven could do, O Rome, thee let him see,",
"In case thy greatness he can guess in heart,",
"By that which but the picture is of thee.",
"Rome is no more: but if the shade of Rome",
"May of the body yield a seeming sight,",
"It's like a corse drawn forth out of the tomb",
"By Magick skill out of eternal night:",
"The corpse of Rome in ashes is entombed,",
"And her great sprite rejoinèd to the sprite",
"Of this great mass, is in the same enwombed;",
"But her brave writings, which her famous merit",
"In spite of time, out of the dust doth rear,",
"Do make her idol through the world appear.",
"",
"",
"6",
"",
"Such as the Berecynthian Goddess bright",
"In her swift chariot with high turrets crowned,",
"Proud that so many Gods she brought to light;",
"Such was this City in her good days found:",
"This city, more than the great Phrygian mother",
"Renowned for fruit of famous progeny,",
"Whose greatness by the greatness of none other,",
"But by herself her equal match could see:",
"Rome only might to Rome comparèd be,",
"And only Rome could make great Rome to tremble:",
"So did the Gods by heavenly doom decree,",
"That other deathly power should not resemble",
"Her that did match the whole earth's puissaunce,",
"And did her courage to the heavens advance.",
"",
"",
"7",
"",
"Ye sacred ruins, and ye tragic sights,",
"Which only do the name of Rome retain,",
"Old monuments, which of so famous sprites",
"The honour yet in ashes do maintain:",
"Triumphant arcs, spires neighbors to the sky,",
"That you to see doth th' heaven itself appall,",
"Alas, by little ye to nothing fly,",
"The people's fable, and the spoil of all:",
"And though your frames do for a time make war",
"'Gainst time, yet time in time shall ruinate",
"Your works and names, and your last relics mar.",
"My sad desires, rest therefore moderate:",
"For if that time make ends of things so sure,",
"It also will end the pain, which I endure.",
"",
"",
"8",
"",
"Through arms and vassals Rome the world subdued,",
"That one would ween, that one sole City's strength",
"Both land and sea in roundess had surview'd,",
"To be the measure of her breadth and length:",
"This people's virtue yet so fruitful was",
"Of virtuous nephews that posterity",
"Striving in power their grandfathers to pass,",
"The lowest earth join'd to the heaven high;",
"To th' end that having all parts in their power",
"Nought from the Roman Empire might be 'quite,",
"And that though time doth Commonwealths devour,",
"Yet no time should so low embase their height,",
"That her head earth'd in her foundations deep,",
"Should not her name and endless honour keep.",
"",
"",
"9",
"",
"Ye cruel stars, and eke ye Gods unkind,",
"Heaven envious, and bitter stepdame Nature,",
"Be it by fortune, or by course of kind",
"That ye do weld th' affairs of earthly creature:",
"Why have your hands long sithence troubled",
"To frame this world, that doth endure so long?",
"Or why were not these Roman palaces",
"Made of some matter no less firm and strong?",
"I say not, as the common voice doth say,",
"That all things which beneath the moon have being",
"Are temporal, and subject to decay:",
"But I say rather, though not all agreeing",
"With some, that ween the contrary in thought:",
"That all this whole shall one day come to nought.",
"",
"",
"10",
"",
"As that brave son of Aeson, which by charms",
"Achieved the golden fleece in Colchid land,",
"Out of the earth engendered men of arms",
"Of Dragons' teetch, sown in the sacred sand;",
"So this brave town, that in her youthly days",
"An Hydra was of warriors glorious,",
"Did fill with her renownéd nurslings praise",
"The firey sun's both one and other house:",
"But they at last, there being then not living",
"An Hercules, so rank seed to repress,;",
"Amongst themselves with cruel fury striving,",
"Mow'd down themselves with slaughter merciless;",
"Renewing in themselves that rage unkind,",
"Which whilom did those searthborn brethren blind.",
"",
"",
"11",
"",
"Mars shaming to have given so great head",
"To his off-spring, that mortal puissance",
"Puffed up with pride of Roman hardy head,",
"Seem'd above heaven's power itself to advance;",
"Cooling again his former kindled heat,",
"With which he had those Roman spirits filled;",
"Did blow new fire, and with enflaméd breath,",
"Into the Gothic cold hot rage instill'd:",
"Then 'gan that Nation, th' earth's new Giant brood,",
"To dart abroad the thunder bolts of war,",
"And beating down these walls with furious mood",
"Into her mother's bosom, all did mar;",
"To th' end that none, all were if Jove his sire",
"Should boast himself of the Roman Empire.",
"",
"",
"12",
"",
"Like as whilome the children of the earth",
"Heaped hills on hills, to scale the starry sky,",
"And fight against the Gods of heavenly birth,",
"Whilst Jove at them his thunderbolts let fly;",
"All suddenly with lightning overthrown,",
"The furious squadrons down the ground did fall,",
"That th' earth under her children's weight did groan,",
"And th' heavens in glory triumphed over all:",
"So did that haughty front which heapéd was",
"On these seven Roman hills, itself uprear",
"Over the world, and lift her lofty face",
"Against the heaven, that 'gan her force to fear.",
"But now these scorned fields bemoan her fall,",
"And Gods secure fear not her force at all.",
"",
"",
"13",
"",
"Nor the swift fury of the flames aspiring,",
"Nor the deep wounds of victor's raging blade,",
"Nor ruthless spoil of soldiers blood-desiring,",
"The which so oft thee, Rome, their conquest made;",
"Ne stroke on stroke of fortune variable,",
"Ne rust of age hating continuance,",
"Nor wrath of Gods, nor spite of men unstable,",
"Nor thou oppos'd against thine own puissance;",
"Nor th' horrible uproar of winds high blowing,",
"Nor swelling streams of that God snaky-paced,",
"Which hath so often with his overflowing",
"Thee drenched, have thy pride so much abased;",
"But that this nothing, which they have thee left,",
"Makes the world wonder, what they from thee reft.",
"",
"",
"14",
"",
"As men in summer fearless pass the ford,",
"Which is in winter lord of all the plain,",
"And with his tumbling streams doth bear aboard",
"The plowman's hope, and shepherd's labor vain;",
"And as the coward beasts use to despise",
"The noble lion after his life's end",
"Whetting their teeth, and with vain foolhardise",
"Daring the foe, that cannot him defend:",
"And as at Troy most dastards of the Greeks",
"Did brave about the corpse of Hector cold;",
"So those which whilome wont with pallid cheeks",
"The Roman triumphs glory to behold,",
"Now on these ashy tombs show boldness vain,",
"And conquer'd dare the Conqueror disdain.",
"",
"",
"15",
"",
"Ye pallid spirits, and ye ashy ghosts,",
"Which joying in the brightness of your day,",
"Brought forth those signs of your premptuous boasts",
"Which now their dusty relics do bewray;",
"Tell me ye spirits (sith the darksome river",
"Of Styx not passable to souls returning,",
"Enclosing you in thrice three wards forever,",
"Do not restrain your images still mourning)",
"Tell me then (for perhaps some one of you",
"Yet here above him secretly doth hide)",
"Do ye not feel your torments to accrue,",
"When ye sometimes behold the ruin'd pride",
"Of these old Roman works built with your hands,",
"Now to become nought else, but heaped sands?",
"",
"",
"16",
"",
"Like as ye see the wrathful sea from far,",
"In a great mountain heap'd with hideous noise,",
"Eftsoons of thousand bilows shouldered narre,",
"Against a rock to break with dreadful poise;",
"Like as ye see fell Boreas with sharp blast,",
"Tossing huge tempests through the troubled sky,",
"Eftsoons having his wide wings spent in vast,",
"To stop his wearie carrier suddenly;",
"And as ye see huge flames spread diversly,",
"Gathered in one up to the heavens to spire,",
"Eftsoons consum'd to fall down feebily:",
"So whilom did this Monarchy aspire",
"As waves, as wind, as fire spread over all,",
"Till it by fatal doom adown did fall.",
"",
"",
"17",
"",
"So long as Jove's great bird did make his flight,",
"Bearing the fire with which heaven doth us fray,",
"Heaven had not fear of that presumptuous might,",
"With which the Giants did the Gods assay.",
"But all so soon, as scorching Sun had brent",
"His wings, which wont to the earth to overspread,",
"The earth out of her massy womb forth sent",
"That antique horror, which made heaven adread.",
"Then was the German raven in disguise",
"That Roman eagle seen to cleave asunder,",
"And towards heaven freshly to arise",
"Out of these mountains, not consum'd to powder.",
"In which the fowl that serves to bear the lightning,",
"Is now no more seen flying, nor alighting.",
"",
"",
"18",
"",
"These heaps of stones, these old walls which ye see,",
"Were first enclosures but of savage soil;",
"And these brave palaces which mastered be",
"Of time, were shepherds cottages somewhile.",
"Then took the shepherd kingly ornamnets",
"And the stout hynde arm'd his right hand with steel:",
"Eftsoones their rule of yearly presidents",
"Grew great, and six months greater a great deal;",
"Which made perpetual, rose to so great might,",
"That thence th' imperial Eagle rooting took,",
"Till th' heaven itself opposing 'gainst her might,",
"Her power to Peter's successor betook;",
"Who shepherdlike, (as fates the same forseeing)",
"Doth show, that all things turn to their first being.",
"",
"",
"19",
"",
"All that is perfect, which th' heaven beautifies;",
"All that's imperfect, born below the moon;",
"All that doth feed our spriits and our eyes;",
"And all that doth consume our pleasures soon;",
"All the mishap, the which our days outwears,",
"All the good hap of th' oldest times afore,",
"Rome in the time of her great ancesters,",
"Like a Pandora, locked long in store.",
"But destiny this huge Chaos turmoiling,",
"In which all good and evil was enclosed,",
"Their heavenly virtues from these woes absolving,",
"Carried to heaven, from sinful bondage loosed:",
"But their great sins, the causers of their pain,",
"Under these antique ruins yet remain.",
"",
"",
"20",
"",
"No otherwise than rainy cloud, first fed",
"With earthly vapors gathered in the air,",
"Eftsoones in compass arch'd, to steep his head,",
"Doth plunge himself in Tethys' bosom fair;",
"And mounting up again, from whence he came,",
"With his great belly spreads the dimmed world,",
"Till at last the last dissolving his moist frame,",
"In rain, or snow, or hail he forth is hurl'd;",
"This City, which was first but shepherds' shade,",
"Uprising by degrees, grew to such height,",
"That queen of land and sea herself she made.",
"At last not able to bear so great weight.",
"Her power dispers'd, through all the world did vade;",
"To show that all in th' end to nought shall fade.",
"",
"",
"21",
"",
"The same which Pyrrhus, and the puissance",
"Of Afric could not tame, that same brave city,",
"Which with stout courage arm'd against mischance,",
"Sustain'd the shock of common enmity;",
"Long as her ship tossed with so many freaks,",
"Had all the world in arms against her bent,",
"Was never seen, that any fortune's wreaks",
"Could break her course begun with brave intent.",
"But when the object of her virtue failed,",
"Her power itself agains itself did arm;",
"As he that having long in tempest sailed,",
"Fain would arrive, but cannot for the storm,",
"If too great wind against the port him drive,",
"Doth in the port itself his vessel rive.",
"",
"",
"22",
"",
"When that brave honour of the Latin name,",
"Which bound her rule with Africa, and Byze,",
"With Thames' inhabitants of noble fame,",
"And they which see the dawning day arise;",
"Her nurslings did with mutinous uproar",
"Hearten against herself, her conquer'd spoil,",
"Which she had won from all the world afore,",
"Of all the world was spoil'd within a while.",
"So when the compass'd course of the universe",
"In six and thirty thousand years is run,",
"The bands of th' elements shall back reverse",
"To their first discord, and be quite undone:",
"The seeds, of which all things at first were bred,",
"Shall in great Chaos' womb again be hid.",
"",
"",
"23",
"",
"O wary wisdom of the man, that would",
"That Carthage towers from spoil should be forborn,",
"To th' end that his victorious people should",
"With cankering leisure not be overworn;",
"He well foresaw, how that the Roman courage,",
"Impatient of pleasure's faint desires,",
"Through idleness would turn to civil rage,",
"And be herself the matter of her fires.",
"For in a people given all to ease,",
"Ambition is engend'red easily;",
"As in a vicious body, gross disease",
"Soon grows through humours' superfluity.",
"That came to pass, when swoll'n with plentious pride,",
"Nor prince, nor peer, nor kin they would abide.",
"",
"",
"24",
"",
"If the blind fury, which wars breedeth oft,",
"Wonts not t' enrage the hearts of equal beasts,",
"Whether they fare on foot, or fly aloft,",
"Or arméd be with claws, or scaly crests;",
"What fell Erynnis with hot burning tongs,",
"Did grip your hearts, with noisome rage imbew'd,",
"That each to other working cruel wrongs,",
"You blades in your own bowels you embrew'd?",
"Was this (ye Romans) your hard destiny?",
"Or some old sin, whose unappeased guilt",
"Power'd vengeance forth on you eternally?",
"Or brother's blood, the which at first was spilt",
"Upon your walls, that God might not endure,",
"Upon the same to set foundation sure?",
"",
"",
"25",
"",
"O that I had the Thracian Poet's harp,",
"For to awake out of th' infernal shade",
"Those antique Cæsars, sleeping long in dark,",
"The which this ancient City whilome made:",
"Or that I had Amphion's instrument,",
"To quicken with his vital note's accord,",
"The stony joints of these old walls now rent,",
"By which th' Ausonian light might be restor'd:",
"Or that at least I could with pencil fine,",
"Fashion the portraits of these palaces,",
"By pattern of great Virgil's spirit divine;",
"I would assay with that which in me is,",
"To build with level of my lofty style,",
"That which no hands can evermore compile.",
"",
"",
"26",
"",
"Who list the Roman greatness forth to figure,",
"Him needeth not to seek for usage right",
"Of line, or lead, or rule, or square, to measure",
"Her length, her breadth, her deepness, or her height:",
"But him behooves to view in compass round",
"All that the ocean grasps in his long arms;",
"Be it where the yearly star doth scorch the ground,",
"Or where cold Boreas blows his bitter storms.",
"Rome was th' whole world, and all the world was Rome,",
"And if things nam'd their names do equalize,",
"When land and sea ye name, then name ye Rome;",
"And naming Rome ye land and sea comprise:",
"For th' ancient plot of Rome displayéd plain,",
"The map of all the wide world doth contain.",
"",
"",
"27",
"",
"Thou that at Rome astonish'd dost behold",
"The antique pride, which menaced the sky,",
"These haughty heaps, these palaces of old,",
"These walls, these arcs, these baths, these temples hie;",
"Judge by these ample ruins' view, the rest",
"The which injurious time hath quite outworne,",
"Since of all workmen held in reck'ning best,",
"Yet these old fragments are for patterns born:",
"Then also mark, how Rome from day to day,",
"Repairing her decayéd fashion,",
"Renews herself with buildings rich and gay;",
"That one would judge, that the Roman dæmon",
"Doth yet himself with fatal hand enforce,",
"Again on foot to rear her pouldred corse.",
"",
"",
"28",
"",
"He that hath seen a great oak dry and dead,",
"Yet clad with relics of some trophies old,",
"Lifting to heaven her agéd hoary head,",
"Whose foot in ground hath left but feeble hold;",
"But half disbowel'd lies above the ground,",
"Showing her wreathéd roots, and naked arms,",
"And on her trunk all rotten and unsound",
"Only supports herself for meat of worms;",
"And though she owe her fall to the first wind,",
"Yet of the devout people is ador'd,",
"And many young plants spring out of her rind;",
"Who such an oak hath seen let him record",
"That such this city's honor was of yore,",
"And 'mongst all cities flourishéd much more.",
"",
"",
"29",
"",
"All that which Egypt whilome did devise,",
"All that which Greece their temples to embrave,",
"After th' Ionic, Attic, Doric guise,",
"Or Corinth skill'd in curious works to 'grave;",
"All that Lysippus' practick art could form,",
"Appeles' wit, or Phidias his skill,",
"Was wont this ancient city to adorn,",
"And the heaven itself with her wide wonders fill;",
"All that which Athens ever brought forth wise,",
"All that which Africa ever brought forth strange,",
"All that which Asia ever had of prize,",
"Was here to see. O marvelous great change:",
"Rome living, was the world's sole ornament,",
"And dead, is now the world's sole monument.",
"",
"",
"30",
"",
"Like as the seeded field green grass first shows,",
"Then from green grass into a stalk doth spring,",
"And from a stalk into an ear forth grows,",
"Which ear the fruitfull grain doth shortly bring;",
"And as in season due the husband mows",
"The waving locks of those fair yellow hairs,",
"Which bound in sheaves, and laid in comely rows,",
"Upon the naked fields in stacks he rears:",
"So grew the Roman Empire by degree,",
"Till that barbarian hands it quite did spill,",
"And left of it but these old marks to see,",
"Of which all passersby do somewhat pill:",
"As they which glean, the relics use to gather,",
"Which th' husbandman behind him chanced to scatter.",
"",
"",
"31",
"",
"That same is now nought but a campion wide,",
"Where all this world's pride once was situate.",
"No blame to thee, whosoever dost abide",
"By Nile, or Ganges, or Tigris, or Euphrate,",
"Ne Africa thereof guilty is, nor Spain,",
"Nor the bold people by the Thame's brinks,",
"Nor the brave, warlike brood of Alemagne,",
"Nor the born soldier which Rhine running drinks;",
"Thou only cause, O civil fury, art",
"Which sowing in the Aemathian fields thy spite,",
"Didst arm thy hand against thy proper heart;",
"To th' end that when thou wast in greatest height",
"To greatness grown, through long prosperity,",
"Thou then adown might'st fall more horribly.",
"",
"",
"32",
"",
"Hope ye, my verses, that posterity",
"Of age ensuing shall you ever read?",
"Hope ye that ever immortality",
"So mean harp's work may challenge for her mead?",
"If under heaven any endurance were,",
"These monuments, which not in paper writ,",
"Put in porphyry and marble do appear,",
"Might well have hop'd to have obtained it.",
"Na th' less my lute, whom Phoebus deigned to give,",
"Cease not to sound these old antiquities:",
"For if that time do let thy glory live,",
"Well mayst thou boast, how ever base thou be,",
"That thou art first, which of thy Nation sung",
"Th' old nonor of the people gowné long.",
"",
"",
"L' Envoi",
"",
"Bellay, first garland of free Poesy",
"That France brought forth, though fruitful of brave wits,",
"Well worthy thou of immorality,",
"That long hast travail'd by thy learned writs,",
"Old Rome out of her ashes to revive,",
"And give a second life to dead decays:",
"Needs must he all eternity survive,",
"That can to other give eternal days.",
"Thy days therefore are endless, and thy praise",
"Excelling all, that ever went before;",
"And after thee, 'gins Bartas high to raise",
"His heavenly Muse, th' Almighty to adore.",
"Live, happy spirits, th' honour of your name,",
"And fill the world with never dying fame."
],
"title": "Ruins of Rome, by Bellay"
},
{
"author": "John Milton",
"line_count": "640",
"lines": [
"Perplexed and troubled at his bad success",
"The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,",
"Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope",
"So oft, and the persuasive rhetoric",
"That sleeked his tongue, and won so much on Eve,",
"So little here, nay lost. But Eve was Eve;",
"This far his over-match, who, self-deceived",
"And rash, beforehand had no better weighed",
"The strength he was to cope with, or his own.",
"But—as a man who had been matchless held",
"In cunning, over-reached where least he thought,",
"To salve his credit, and for very spite,",
"Still will be tempting him who foils him still,",
"And never cease, though to his shame the more;",
"Or as a swarm of flies in vintage-time,",
"About the wine-press where sweet must is poured,",
"Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;",
"Or surging waves against a solid rock,",
"Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,",
"(Vain battery!) and in froth or bubbles end—",
"So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse",
"Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,",
"Yet gives not o'er, though desperate of success,",
"And his vain importunity pursues.",
"He brought our Saviour to the western side",
"Of that high mountain, whence he might behold",
"Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide,",
"Washed by the southern sea, and on the north",
"To equal length backed with a ridge of hills",
"That screened the fruits of the earth and seats of men",
"From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst",
"Divided by a river, off whose banks",
"On each side an Imperial City stood,",
"With towers and temples proudly elevate",
"On seven small hills, with palaces adorned,",
"Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,",
"Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,",
"Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes",
"Above the highth of mountains interposed—",
"By what strange parallax, or optic skill",
"Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass",
"Of telescope, were curious to enquire.",
"And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:—",
" \"The city which thou seest no other deem",
"Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth",
"So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched",
"Of nations. There the Capitol thou seest,",
"Above the rest lifting his stately head",
"On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel",
"Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine,",
"The imperial palace, compass huge, and high",
"The structure, skill of noblest architects,",
"With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,",
"Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires.",
"Many a fair edifice besides, more like",
"Houses of gods—so well I have disposed",
"My aerie microscope—thou may'st behold,",
"Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs",
"Carved work, the hand of famed artificers",
"In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.",
"Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see",
"What conflux issuing forth, or entering in:",
"Praetors, proconsuls to their provinces",
"Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;",
"Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power;",
"Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings;",
"Or embassies from regions far remote,",
"In various habits, on the Appian road,",
"Or on the AEmilian—some from farthest south,",
"Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,",
"Meroe, Nilotic isle, and, more to west,",
"The realm of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea;",
"From the Asian kings (and Parthian among these),",
"From India and the Golden Chersoness,",
"And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,",
"Dusk faces with white silken turbants wreathed;",
"From Gallia, Gades, and the British west;",
"Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians north",
"Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.",
"All nations now to Rome obedience pay—",
"To Rome's great Emperor, whose wide domain,",
"In ample territory, wealth and power,",
"Civility of manners, arts and arms,",
"And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer",
"Before the Parthian. These two thrones except,",
"The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,",
"Shared among petty kings too far removed;",
"These having shewn thee, I have shewn thee all",
"The kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.",
"This Emperor hath no son, and now is old,",
"Old and lascivious, and from Rome retired",
"To Capreae, an island small but strong",
"On the Campanian shore, with purpose there",
"His horrid lusts in private to enjoy;",
"Committing to a wicked favourite",
"All public cares, and yet of him suspicious;",
"Hated of all, and hating. With what ease,",
"Endued with regal virtues as thou art,",
"Appearing, and beginning noble deeds,",
"Might'st thou expel this monster from his throne,",
"Now made a sty, and, in his place ascending,",
"A victor-people free from servile yoke!",
"And with my help thou may'st; to me the power",
"Is given, and by that right I give it thee.",
"Aim, therefore, at no less than all the world;",
"Aim at the highest; without the highest attained,",
"Will be for thee no sitting, or not long,",
"On David's throne, be prophesied what will.\"",
" To whom the Son of God, unmoved, replied:—",
"\"Nor doth this grandeur and majestic shew",
"Of luxury, though called magnificence,",
"More than of arms before, allure mine eye,",
"Much less my mind; though thou should'st add to tell",
"Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts",
"On citron tables or Atlantic stone",
"(For I have also heard, perhaps have read),",
"Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,",
"Chios and Crete, and how they quaff in gold,",
"Crystal, and myrrhine cups, imbossed with gems",
"And studs of pearl—to me should'st tell, who thirst",
"And hunger still. Then embassies thou shew'st",
"From nations far and nigh! What honour that,",
"But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear",
"So many hollow compliments and lies,",
"Outlandish flatteries? Then proceed'st to talk",
"Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,",
"How gloriously. I shall, thou say'st, expel",
"A brutish monster: what if I withal",
"Expel a Devil who first made him such?",
"Let his tormentor, Conscience, find him out;",
"For him I was not sent, nor yet to free",
"That people, victor once, now vile and base,",
"Deservedly made vassal—who, once just,",
"Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,",
"But govern ill the nations under yoke,",
"Peeling their provinces, exhausted all",
"By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown",
"Of triumph, that insulting vanity;",
"Then cruel, by their sports to blood inured",
"Of fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed;",
"Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still,",
"And from the daily Scene effeminate.",
"What wise and valiant man would seek to free",
"These, thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,",
"Or could of inward slaves make outward free?",
"Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit",
"On David's throne, it shall be like a tree",
"Spreading and overshadowing all the earth,",
"Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash",
"All monarchies besides throughout the world;",
"And of my Kingdom there shall be no end.",
"Means there shall be to this; but what the means",
"Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell.\"",
" To whom the Tempter, impudent, replied:—",
"\"I see all offers made by me how slight",
"Thou valuest, because offered, and reject'st.",
"Nothing will please the difficult and nice,",
"Or nothing more than still to contradict.",
"On the other side know also thou that I",
"On what I offer set as high esteem,",
"Nor what I part with mean to give for naught,",
"All these, which in a moment thou behold'st,",
"The kingdoms of the world, to thee I give",
"(For, given to me, I give to whom I please),",
"No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else—",
"On this condition, if thou wilt fall down,",
"And worship me as thy superior Lord",
"(Easily done), and hold them all of me;",
"For what can less so great a gift deserve?\"",
" Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain:—",
"\"I never liked thy talk, thy offers less;",
"Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter",
"The abominable terms, impious condition.",
"But I endure the time, till which expired",
"Thou hast permission on me. It is written,",
"The first of all commandments, 'Thou shalt worship",
"The Lord thy God, and only Him shalt serve.'",
"And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound",
"To worship thee, accursed? now more accursed",
"For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve,",
"And more blasphemous; which expect to rue.",
"The kingdoms of the world to thee were given!",
"Permitted rather, and by thee usurped;",
"Other donation none thou canst produce.",
"If given, by whom but by the King of kings,",
"God over all supreme? If given to thee,",
"By thee how fairly is the Giver now",
"Repaid! But gratitude in thee is lost",
"Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame",
"As offer them to me, the Son of God—",
"To me my own, on such abhorred pact,",
"That I fall down and worship thee as God?",
"Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st",
"That Evil One, Satan for ever damned.\"",
" To whom the Fiend, with fear abashed, replied:—",
"\"Be not so sore offended, Son of God—",
"Though Sons of God both Angels are and Men—",
"If I, to try whether in higher sort",
"Than these thou bear'st that title, have proposed",
"What both from Men and Angels I receive,",
"Tetrarchs of Fire, Air, Flood, and on the Earth",
"Nations besides from all the quartered winds—",
"God of this World invoked, and World beneath.",
"Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold",
"To me most fatal, me it most concerns.",
"The trial hath indamaged thee no way,",
"Rather more honour left and more esteem;",
"Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.",
"Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,",
"The kingdoms of this world; I shall no more",
"Advise thee; gain them as thou canst, or not.",
"And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclined",
"Than to a worldly crown, addicted more",
"To contemplation and profound dispute;",
"As by that early action may be judged,",
"When, slipping from thy mother's eye, thou went'st",
"Alone into the Temple, there wast found",
"Among the gravest Rabbies, disputant",
"On points and questions fitting Moses' chair,",
"Teaching, not taught. The childhood shews the man,",
"As morning shews the day. Be famous, then,",
"By wisdom; as thy empire must extend,",
"So let extend thy mind o'er all the world",
"In knowledge; all things in it comprehend.",
"All knowledge is not couched in Moses' law,",
"The Pentateuch, or what the Prophets wrote;",
"The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach",
"To admiration, led by Nature's light;",
"And with the Gentiles much thou must converse,",
"Ruling them by persuasion, as thou mean'st.",
"Without their learning, how wilt thou with them,",
"Or they with thee, hold conversation meet?",
"How wilt thou reason with them, how refute",
"Their idolisms, traditions, paradoxes?",
"Error by his own arms is best evinced.",
"Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount,",
"Westward, much nearer by south-west; behold",
"Where on the AEgean shore a city stands,",
"Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil—",
"Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts",
"And Eloquence, native to famous wits",
"Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,",
"City or suburban, studious walks and shades.",
"See there the olive-grove of Academe,",
"Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird",
"Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;",
"There, flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound",
"Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites",
"To studious musing; there Ilissus rowls",
"His whispering stream. Within the walls then view",
"The schools of ancient sages—his who bred",
"Great Alexander to subdue the world,",
"Lyceum there; and painted Stoa next.",
"There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power",
"Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit",
"By voice or hand, and various-measured verse,",
"AEolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,",
"And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,",
"Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called,",
"Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own.",
"Thence what the lofty grave Tragedians taught",
"In chorus or iambic, teachers best",
"Of moral prudence, with delight received",
"In brief sententious precepts, while they treat",
"Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,",
"High actions and high passions best describing.",
"Thence to the famous Orators repair,",
"Those ancient whose resistless eloquence",
"Wielded at will that fierce democraty,",
"Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece",
"To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne.",
"To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,",
"From heaven descended to the low-roofed house",
"Of Socrates—see there his tenement—",
"Whom, well inspired, the Oracle pronounced",
"Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth",
"Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools",
"Of Academics old and new, with those",
"Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect",
"Epicurean, and the Stoic severe.",
"These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home,",
"Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;",
"These rules will render thee a king complete",
"Within thyself, much more with empire joined.\"",
" To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied:—",
"\"Think not but that I know these things; or, think",
"I know them not, not therefore am I short",
"Of knowing what I ought. He who receives",
"Light from above, from the Fountain of Light,",
"No other doctrine needs, though granted true;",
"But these are false, or little else but dreams,",
"Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.",
"The first and wisest of them all professed",
"To know this only, that he nothing knew;",
"The next to fabling fell and smooth conceits;",
"A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense;",
"Others in virtue placed felicity,",
"But virtue joined with riches and long life;",
"In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease;",
"The Stoic last in philosophic pride,",
"By him called virtue, and his virtuous man,",
"Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing,",
"Equal to God, oft shames not to prefer,",
"As fearing God nor man, contemning all",
"Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life—",
"Which, when he lists, he leaves, or boasts he can;",
"For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,",
"Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.",
"Alas! what can they teach, and not mislead,",
"Ignorant of themselves, of God much more,",
"And how the World began, and how Man fell,",
"Degraded by himself, on grace depending?",
"Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry;",
"And in themselves seek virtue; and to themselves",
"All glory arrogate, to God give none;",
"Rather accuse him under usual names,",
"Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite",
"Of mortal things. Who, therefore, seeks in these",
"True wisdom finds her not, or, by delusion",
"Far worse, her false resemblance only meets,",
"An empty cloud. However, many books,",
"Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads",
"Incessantly, and to his reading brings not",
"A spirit and judgment equal or superior,",
"(And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?)",
"Uncertain and unsettled still remains,",
"Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself,",
"Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys",
"And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge,",
"As children gathering pebbles on the shore.",
"Or, if I would delight my private hours",
"With music or with poem, where so soon",
"As in our native language can I find",
"That solace? All our Law and Story strewed",
"With hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed,",
"Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon",
"That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare",
"That rather Greece from us these arts derived—",
"Ill imitated while they loudest sing",
"The vices of their deities, and their own,",
"In fable, hymn, or song, so personating",
"Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.",
"Remove their swelling epithetes, thick-laid",
"As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest,",
"Thin-sown with aught of profit or delight,",
"Will far be found unworthy to compare",
"With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling,",
"Where God is praised aright and godlike men,",
"The Holiest of Holies and his Saints",
"(Such are from God inspired, not such from thee);",
"Unless where moral virtue is expressed",
"By light of Nature, not in all quite lost.",
"Their orators thou then extoll'st as those",
"The top of eloquence—statists indeed,",
"And lovers of their country, as may seem;",
"But herein to our Prophets far beneath,",
"As men divinely taught, and better teaching",
"The solid rules of civil government,",
"In their majestic, unaffected style,",
"Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome.",
"In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,",
"What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so,",
"What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;",
"These only, with our Law, best form a king.\"",
" So spake the Son of God; but Satan, now",
"Quite at a loss (for all his darts were spent),",
"Thus to our Saviour, with stern brow, replied:—",
" \"Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,",
"Kingdom nor empire, pleases thee, nor aught",
"By me proposed in life contemplative",
"Or active, tended on by glory or fame,",
"What dost thou in this world? The Wilderness",
"For thee is fittest place: I found thee there,",
"And thither will return thee. Yet remember",
"What I foretell thee; soon thou shalt have cause",
"To wish thou never hadst rejected, thus",
"Nicely or cautiously, my offered aid,",
"Which would have set thee in short time with ease",
"On David's throne, or throne of all the world,",
"Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season,",
"When prophecies of thee are best fulfilled.",
"Now, contrary—if I read aught in heaven,",
"Or heaven write aught of fate—by what the stars",
"Voluminous, or single characters",
"In their conjunction met, give me to spell,",
"Sorrows and labours, opposition, hate,",
"Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries,",
"Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.",
"A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom,",
"Real or allegoric, I discern not;",
"Nor when: eternal sure—as without end,",
"Without beginning; for no date prefixed",
"Directs me in the starry rubric set.\"",
" So saying, he took (for still he knew his power",
"Not yet expired), and to the Wilderness",
"Brought back, the Son of God, and left him there,",
"Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose,",
"As daylight sunk, and brought in louring Night,",
"Her shadowy offspring, unsubstantial both,",
"Privation mere of light and absent day.",
"Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind",
"After hisaerie jaunt, though hurried sore,",
"Hungry and cold, betook him to his rest,",
"Wherever, under some concourse of shades,",
"Whose branching arms thick intertwined might shield",
"From dews and damps of night his sheltered head;",
"But, sheltered, slept in vain; for at his head",
"The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams",
"Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now",
"'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds",
"From many a horrid rift abortive poured",
"Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire,",
"In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds",
"Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad",
"From the four hinges of the world, and fell",
"On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines,",
"Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks,",
"Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,",
"Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then,",
"O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st",
"Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there:",
"Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round",
"Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,",
"Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou",
"Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.",
"Thus passed the night so foul, till Morning fair",
"Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,",
"Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar",
"Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,",
"And griesly spectres, which the Fiend had raised",
"To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.",
"And now the sun with more effectual beams",
"Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet",
"From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,",
"Who all things now behold more fresh and green,",
"After a night of storm so ruinous,",
"Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,",
"To gratulate the sweet return of morn.",
"Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,",
"Was absent, after all his mischief done,",
"The Prince of Darkness; glad would also seem",
"Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;",
"Yet with no new device (they all were spent),",
"Rather by this his last affront resolved,",
"Desperate of better course, to vent his rage",
"And mad despite to be so oft repelled.",
"Him walking on a sunny hill he found,",
"Backed on the north and west by a thick wood;",
"Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape,",
"And in a careless mood thus to him said:—",
" \"Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,",
"After a dismal night. I heard the wrack,",
"As earth and sky would mingle; but myself",
"Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them,",
"As dangerous to the pillared frame of Heaven,",
"Or to the Earth's dark basis underneath,",
"Are to the main as inconsiderable",
"And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze",
"To man's less universe, and soon are gone.",
"Yet, as being ofttimes noxious where they light",
"On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,",
"Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,",
"Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,",
"They oft fore-signify and threaten ill.",
"This tempest at this desert most was bent;",
"Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.",
"Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject",
"The perfect season offered with my aid",
"To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong",
"All to the push of fate, pursue thy way",
"Of gaining David's throne no man knows when",
"(For both the when and how is nowhere told),",
"Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt;",
"For Angels have proclaimed it, but concealing",
"The time and means? Each act is rightliest done",
"Not when it must, but when it may be best.",
"If thou observe not this, be sure to find",
"What I foretold thee—many a hard assay",
"Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,",
"Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold;",
"Whereof this ominous night that closed thee round,",
"So many terrors, voices, prodigies,",
"May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign.\"",
" So talked he, while the Son of God went on,",
"And staid not, but in brief him answered thus:—",
" \"Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm",
"Those terrors which thou speak'st of did me none.",
"I never feared they could, though noising loud",
"And threatening nigh: what they can do as signs",
"Betokening or ill-boding I contemn",
"As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;",
"Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,",
"Obtrud'st thy offered aid, that I, accepting,",
"At least might seem to hold all power of thee,",
"Ambitious Spirit! and would'st be thought my God;",
"And storm'st, refused, thinking to terrify",
"Me to thy will! Desist (thou art discerned,",
"And toil'st in vain), nor me in vain molest.\"",
" To whom the Fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:—",
"\"Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born!",
"For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.",
"Of the Messiah I have heard foretold",
"By all the Prophets; of thy birth, at length",
"Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,",
"And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,",
"On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.",
"From that time seldom have I ceased to eye",
"Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,",
"Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;",
"Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all",
"Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest",
"(Though not to be baptized), by voice from Heaven",
"Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.",
"Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view",
"And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn",
"In what degree or meaning thou art called",
"The Son of God, which bears no single sense.",
"The Son of God I also am, or was;",
"And, if I was, I am; relation stands:",
"All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought",
"In some respect far higher so declared.",
"Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,",
"And followed thee still on to this waste wild,",
"Where, by all best conjectures, I collect",
"Thou art to be my fatal enemy.",
"Good reason, then, if I beforehand seek",
"To understand my adversary, who",
"And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent;",
"By parle or composition, truce or league,",
"To win him, or win from him what I can.",
"And opportunity I here have had",
"To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee",
"Proof against all temptation, as a rock",
"Of adamant and as a centre, firm",
"To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,",
"Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,",
"Have been before contemned, and may again.",
"Therefore, to know what more thou art than man,",
"Worth naming the Son of God by voice from Heaven,",
"Another method I must now begin.\"",
" So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing",
"Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime,",
"Over the wilderness and o'er the plain,",
"Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,",
"The Holy City, lifted high her towers,",
"And higher yet the glorious Temple reared",
"Her pile, far off appearing like a mount",
"Of alablaster, topt with golden spires:",
"There, on the highest pinnacle, he set",
"The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:—",
" \"There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright",
"Will ask thee skill. I to thy Father's house",
"Have brought thee, and highest placed: highest is best.",
"Now shew thy progeny; if not to stand,",
"Cast thyself down. Safely, if Son of God;",
"For it is written, 'He will give command",
"Concerning thee to his Angels; in their hands",
"They shall uplift thee, lest at any time",
"Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.'\"",
" To whom thus Jesus: \"Also it is written,",
"'Tempt not the Lord thy God.'\" He said, and stood;",
"But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.",
"As when Earth's son, Antaeus (to compare",
"Small things with greatest), in Irassa strove",
"With Jove's Alcides, and, oft foiled, still rose,",
"Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,",
"Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joined,",
"Throttled at length in the air expired and fell,",
"So, after many a foil, the Tempter proud,",
"Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride",
"Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall;",
"And, as that Theban monster that proposed",
"Her riddle, and him who solved it not devoured,",
"That once found out and solved, for grief and spite",
"Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep,",
"So, strook with dread and anguish, fell the Fiend,",
"And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought",
"Joyless triumphals of his hoped success,",
"Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,",
"Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God.",
"So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe",
"Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,",
"Who on their plumy vans received Him soft",
"From his uneasy station, and upbore,",
"As on a floating couch, through the blithe air;",
"Then, in a flowery valley, set him down",
"On a green bank, and set before him spread",
"A table of celestial food, divine",
"Ambrosial fruits fetched from the Tree of Life,",
"And from the Fount of Life ambrosial drink,",
"That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired",
"What hunger, if aught hunger, had impaired,",
"Or thirst; and, as he fed, Angelic quires",
"Sung heavenly anthems of his victory",
"Over temptation and the Tempter proud:—",
" \"True Image of the Father, whether throned",
"In the bosom of bliss, and light of light",
"Conceiving, or, remote from Heaven, enshrined",
"In fleshly tabernacle and human form,",
"Wandering the wilderness—whatever place,",
"Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing",
"The Son of God, with Godlike force endued",
"Against the attempter of thy Father's throne",
"And thief of Paradise! Him long of old",
"Thou didst debel, and down from Heaven cast",
"With all his army; now thou hast avenged",
"Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing",
"Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise,",
"And frustrated the conquest fraudulent.",
"He never more henceforth will dare set foot",
"In paradise to tempt; his snares are broke.",
"For, though that seat of earthly bliss be failed,",
"A fairer Paradise is founded now",
"For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou,",
"A Saviour, art come down to reinstall;",
"Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be,",
"Of tempter and temptation without fear.",
"But thou, Infernal Serpent! shalt not long",
"Rule in the clouds. Like an autumnal star,",
"Or lightning, thou shalt fall from Heaven, trod down",
"Under his feet. For proof, ere this thou feel'st",
"Thy wound (yet not thy last and deadliest wound)",
"By this repulse received, and hold'st in Hell",
"No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues",
"Thy bold attempt. Hereafter learn with awe",
"To dread the Son of God. He, all unarmed,",
"Shall chase thee, with the terror of his voice,",
"From thy demoniac holds, possession foul—",
"Thee and thy legions; yelling they shall fly,",
"And beg to hide them in a herd of swine,",
"Lest he command them down into the Deep,",
"Bound, and to torment sent before their time.",
"Hail, Son of the Most High, heir of both Worlds,",
"Queller of Satan! On thy glorious work",
"Now enter, and begin to save Mankind.\"",
" Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek,",
"Sung victor, and, from heavenly feast refreshed,",
"Brought on his way with joy. He, unobserved,",
"Home to his mother's house private returned.",
"",
"THE END"
],
"title": "Paradise Regained: The Fourth Book"
},
{
"author": "Coventry Patmore",
"line_count": "25",
"lines": [
"With all my will, but much against my heart,",
"We two now part.",
"My Very Dear,",
"Our solace is, the sad road lies so clear.",
"It needs no art,",
"With faint, averted feet",
"And many a tear,",
"In our opposèd paths to persevere.",
"Go thou to East, I West.",
"We will not say",
"There 's any hope, it is so far away.",
"But, O, my Best,",
"When the one darling of our widowhead,",
"The nursling Grief,",
"Is dead,",
"And no dews blur our eyes",
"To see the peach-bloom come in evening skies,",
"Perchance we may,",
"Where now this night is day,",
"And even through faith of still averted feet,",
"Making full circle of our banishment,",
"Amazèd meet;",
"The bitter journey to the bourne so sweet",
"Seasoning the termless feast of our content",
"With tears of recognition never dry."
],
"title": "A Farewell"
}
],
"success": true
}