CIV. "Or take him by that sole and grizzled tuft, For thou wast born I know for this renown, That readeth ev'n at Fate's forestalling pen. CV. Nay, by the golden lustre of thine eye, And by thy brow's most fair and ample span, Thought's glorious palace, fram'd for fancies high, CVI. "O shield us then from this usurping Time, Such as no poet's wreath hath ever been! CVII. "And we'll distil thee aromatic dews, To charm thy sense, when there shall be no flow'rs; And flavour'd syrops in thy drinks infuse, And teach the nightingale to haunt thy bow'rs, And with our games divert thy weariest hours, And, this churl dead, there'll be no hasting hours CVIII. Whom, therefore, the kind Shade rebukes anew, Saying, "Thou haggard Sin, go forth, and scoop Thy hollow coffin in some churchyard yew, Or make th' autumnal flow'rs turn pale, and droop; Or fell the bearded corn, till gleaners stoop Under fat sheaves, or blast the piny grove; But here thou shalt not harm this pretty groupe, Whose lives are not so frail and feebly wove, But leas'd on Nature's loveliness and love. CIX. "'Tis these that free the small entangled fly, CX. ""Tis these befriend the timid trembling stag, When, with a bursting heart beset with fears, He feels his saving speed begin to flag; For then they quench the fatal taint with tears, CXI. "For these are kindly ministers of nature, To soothe all covert hurts and dumb distress; Pretty they be, and very small of stature, still consorts with littleness; For mercy Wherefore the sum of good is still the less, And mischief grossest in this world of wrong; So do these charitable dwarfs redress The tenfold ravages of giants strong, To whom great malice and great might belong. CXII. "Likewise to them are Poets much beholden For secret favours in the midnight glooms; CXIII. "Nay I myself, though mortal, once was nurs’d Telling me wonders of the moon and earth; Where Puck hath been conven'd to make me mirth; I have had from Queen Titania tokens fond, And toy'd with Oberon's permitted wand. |