'hope. Hope, whose weak being ruin'd is Alike, if it succeed, or if it miss! Whom ill and good doth equally confound, And both the horns of Fate's dilemma wound. Both at full noon, and perfect night! If things then from their end we happy call, Hope, thou bold taster of delight! Who instead of doing so, devour'st it quite. The joys which we entire should wed, Come deflowr'd virgins to our bed. Good fortunes without gain imported be, For joy, like wine kept close, doth better taste; Hope, Fortune's cheating lottery, Where, for one prize, an hundred blanks there be. -Fond archer, Hope! who tak'st thine aim so far, That still, or short, or wide, thine arrows are ; With shapes that our own fancy gives. A cloud, which gilt and painted now appears, When thy false beams o'er reason's light prevail, Brother of Fear? more gaily clad, With the strange witchcraft of 'anon' And th' other chases woman; while she goes More ways and turns than hunted Nature knows. M. COWLEY. -:0: D. Crasbaw's Answer for hope. Dear Hope! Earth's dow'ry, and Heaven's debt! The entity of things that are not yet. Subtlest, but surest being! thou by whom Our nothing has a definition! Substantial shade! whose sweet allay Blends both the noons of Night and Day : Of hurting thee. From thee their lean dilemma, with blunt horn, Rich hope! Love's legacy, under lock Of Faith !—still spending, and still growing stock! Nor will the virgin-joys we wed Come less unbroken to our bed, Because that from the bridal cheek of Bliss, Thou steal'st us down a distant kiss. Hope's chaste stealth harms no more Joy's maidenhead Than spousal rites prejudge the marriage-bed. Fair hope! our earlier Heav'n! by thee Young time is taster to Eternity: Thy generous wine with age grows strong, not sour, Thy golden growing head never hangs down, Till in the lap of Love's full noon It falls; and dies! O no, it melts away As lumps of sugar loose themselves, and twine Fortune? alas, above the World's low wars Hope walks and kicks the curl'd heads of conspiring stars. Her keel cuts not the waves where our winds stir, Fortune's whole lottery is one blank to her. Her shafts and she fly far above, And forage in the fields of light and love. Sweet Hope! kind cheat! fair fallacy! by thee We are not where nor what we be, But what and where we would be. Thus art thou Our absent presence, and our future now. Faith's sister! nurse of fair desire! Fear's antidote! a wise and well-staid fire! True Hope's a glorious huntress, and her chase, Glossary. Alas (Answer for Hope), an exclamation merely. God of flies (Prayer), Satan. Deliquium (Glor. Epiph.), faint, swoon. Gold (S. Mary Magd.), Magdalene's golden hair. Legible (Glor. Epiph.], for legibly. Nuzzled (S. Mary Magd.), nestled. Officious (Hol. Nativity), willing to do good offices. Paramours (New Year's Day), lovers. Ports (S. Thomas), gates or doors. Solicitors (To the Name of Jesus), exciters or animators. Transumed (Lauda Sion Salvatorem), to take from one to another; to convert. Tree (Sancta Maria Dol.), the Cross. |