"Ascend, my son! thy Father's kingdom share,
My son! henceforth be free'd from ev'ry care."
So spake the voice, and at its tender close
With psaltry's sound th'Angelic band arose.
Then night retired, and chased by dawning day
The visionary bliss pass'd all away.
I mourn'd my banish'd sleep with fond concern, 70
Frequent, to me may dreams like this return.
1 i.e. "In my seventeeth year," meaning at the age of sixteen.
2 Lancelot Andrewes, Fuller's "peerless prelate."
3 The plague which ravaged England in I626.
4 Prince Christian of Brunswick, and Count Mansfelt. They were
brothers in arms and the Protestant champions. They both died in
I626.
5 Marine creatures. Proteus was the shepherd of the seas.
6 Flora.
7 See the account of his gardens in the Odyssey.
ELEGY IV.
Anno Aetates 18.
To My Tutor, Thomas Young,1
Chaplain of the English Merchants Resident at Hamburg.
Hence, my epistle--skim the Deep--fly o'er
Yon smooth expanse to the Teutonic shore!
Haste--lest a friend should grieve for thy delay--
And the Gods grant that nothing thwart thy way!
I will myself invoke the King2 who binds
In his Sicanian ecchoing vault the winds,
With Doris3 and her Nymphs, and all the throng
Of azure Gods, to speed thee safe along.
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