1 Where perhaps some Beauty lies, Till the livelong daylight fail. Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, How fairy Mab the junkets eat; 6 1 Shepherd names from the Seventh Eclogue of Vergil. 2 A name taken from the Second Eclogue of Vergil. 3 Country. 4 There is said to be a confusion here between "Friar Rush, who haunted houses, and Jack o' Lanthorn, who haunted fields." 5 Robin Goodfellow. 6 Old past tense. When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, And the busy hum of men, Where throngs of knights and barons bold In saffron robe, with taper clear, 3 And pomp, and feast, and revelry, And ever against eating cares Lap me in soft Lydian 5 airs, 4 Soccus, a shoe worn by comic actors. 3 Procession. 5 Of the three ancient musical modes or scales (Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian), the Lydian was the softest and tenderest. Married to immortal verse; Such as the mecting soul may pierce That Orpheus' self may heave his head Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live. J. MILTON 1 17. SONG IN ABSENCE THE sun rises bright in France, And fair sets he; But he has tint 2 the blithe blink he had In my ain countrie. O gladness comes to many, But sorrow comes to me, As I look o'er the wide ocean To my ain countrie. 1 For fuller notes to this and other poems by Milton, see Mr. Hales's Longer English Poems (Macmillan). 2 Lost. O it's nae my ain ruin That saddens aye my e'e, The bud comes back to summer, To my ain countrie. I'm leal to the high Heaven, An' there I'll meet ye a' sune Frae my ain countrie. A. CUNNINGHAM 18. A QUIET MIND WHEN all is done and said, in the end this shall you find : He most of all doth bathe in bliss that hath a quiet mind; And, clear from worldly cares, to deem can be content The sweetest time in all this life in thinking to be spent. The body subject is to fickle Fortune's power, And to a million of mishaps is casual every hour; And death in time doth change it to a clod of clay : Whereas the mind, which is divine, runs never to decay. Companion none is like unto the mind alone, For many have been harmed by speech-through thinking few, or none : Fear oftentimes restraineth words, but makes not thoughts to cease; And he speaks best that hath the skill when for to hold his peace. Our wealth leaves us at death, our kinsmen at the grave; But virtues of the mind unto the heavens with us we have: Wherefore, for virtue's sake, I can be well content The sweetest time in all my life to deem in think ing spent. THOMAS (LORD) VAUX 19. TO A CHILD IN HEAVEN I CARE not, though it be By the preciser sort thought Popery ; For every thing we do: Hear then, my little saint,—I'll pray to thee. If now thy happy mind Amidst its various joys can leisure find |