The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Preface.
• Miscellaneous Poems.
• On the Morning of Christs Nativity.
• The Hymn.
• A Paraphrase On Psalm 114.
• Psalm 136.
• The Passion.
• On Time.
• Upon the Circumcision.
• At a Solemn Musick.
• An Epitaph On the Marchioness of Winchester.
• Song On May Morning
• Another On the Same.
• L’allegro.
• Il Penseroso.
• Sonnets.
• Arcades.
• Lycidas.
• A Maske Presented At Ludlow Castle, 1634: On Michaelmasse Night, Before the Right Honorable, Iohn Earle of Bridgewater, Vicount Brackly, Lord Præsident of Wales, and One of His Maiesties Most Honorable Privie Counsell.
• Poems Added In the 1673 Edition.
• Anno Aetatis 17. On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough.
• Anno Aetatis 19. At a Vacation Exercise In the Colledge, Part Latin, Part English. the Latin Speeches Ended, the English Thus Began.
• The Fifth Ode of Horace. Lib. I.
• Sonnets.
• On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament.
• On the Lord Gen. Fairfax At the Seige of Colchester.
• To the Lord Generall Cromwell May 1652.
• To S R Henry Vane the Younger.
• To Mr. Cyriack Skinner Upon His Blindness.
• Psal. I. Done Into Verse, 1653.
• April, 1648. J. M. Nine of the Psalms Done Into Metre, Wherein All But What Is In a Different Character, Are the Very Words of the Text, Translated From the Original.
• Passages From Prose Writings.
• A Collection of Passages Translated In the Prose Writings.
• Joanni Miltoni
• Elegiarum Liber Primus.
• Sylvarum Liber.
• Paradise Lost.
• Book I.
• Book II.
• Book III.
• Book IV.
• Book V.
• Book VI.
• Book VII.
• Book VIII.
• Book IX.
• Book X.
• Book XI.
• Book XII.
• Paradise Regaind. a Poem.
• The First Book.
• The Second Book.
• The Third Book.
• The Fourth Book.
• Samson Agonistes, a Dramatic Poem.
• Appendix.
• ( a ): Specimen of Milton’s Spelling, From the Cambridge Autograph Manuscript.
• ( B ): Note of a Few Readings In the Same Manuscript.
• ( C ) Erratum

Anno aetatis 17.
On the Death of a fair Infant dying of a Cough.

• I
• O fairest flower no sooner blown but blasted,
• Soft silken Primrose fading timelesslie,
• Summers chief honour if thou hadst out-lasted
• Bleak winters force that made thy blossome drie;
• For he being amorous on that lovely die
• That did thy cheek envermeil, thought to kiss
• But kill’d alas, and then bewayl’d his fatal bliss.

• II
• For since grim Aquilo his charioter
• By boistrous rape th’ Athenian damsel got,
• He thought it toucht his Deitie full neer,10
• If likewise he some fair one wedded not,
• Thereby to wipe away th’ infamous blot,
• Of long-uncoupled bed, and childless eld,
• Which ’mongst the wanton gods a foul reproach was held.

• III
• So mounting up in ycie-pearled carr,
• Through middle empire of the freezing aire
• He wanderd long, till thee he spy’d from farr,
• There ended was his quest, there ceast his care.
• Down he descended from his Snow-soft chaire,
• But all unwares with his cold-kind embrace20
• Unhous’d thy Virgin Soul from her fair biding place.

• IV
• Yet art thou not inglorious in thy fate;
• For so Apollo, with unweeting hand
• Whilome did slay his dearly-loved mate
• Young Hyacinth born on Eurotas’ strand,
• Young Hyacinth the pride of Spartan land;
• But then transform’d him to a purple flower
• Alack that so to change thee winter had no power.

• V
• Yet can I not perswade me thou art dead
• Or that thy coarse corrupts in earths dark wombe,30
• Or that thy beauties lie in wormie bed,
• Hid from the world in a low delved tombe;
• Could Heav’n for pittie thee so strictly doom?
• Oh no! for something in thy face did shine
• Above mortalitie that shew’d thou wast divine.

• VI
• Resolve me then oh Soul most surely blest
• (If so it be that thou these plaints dost hear)
• Tell me bright Spirit where e’re thou hoverest
• Whether above that high first-moving Spheare
• Or in the Elisian fields (if such there were.)40
• Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight
• And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.

• VII
• Wert thou some Starr which from the ruin’d roofe
• Of shak’t Olympus by mischance didst fall;
• Which carefull Jove in natures true behoofe
• Took up, and in fit place did reinstall?
• Or did of late earths Sonnes besiege the wall
• Of sheenie Heav’n, and thou some goddess fled
• Amongst us here below to hide thy nectar’d head.

• VIII
• Or wert thou that just Maid who once before50
• Forsook the hated earth, O tell me sooth
• And cam’st again to visit us once more?
• Or wert thou that sweet smiling Youth!
• Or that c[r]own’d Matron sage white-robed Truth?
• Or any other of that heav’nly brood
• Let down in clowdie throne to do the world some good.

• IX
• Or wert thou of the golden-winged hoast,
• Who having clad thy self in humane weed,
• To earth from thy præfixed seat didst poast,
• And after short abode flie back with speed,60
• As if to shew what creatures Heav’n doth breed,
• Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire
• To scorn the sordid world, and unto Heav’n aspire.

• X
• But oh why didst thou not stay here below
• To bless us with thy heav’n-lov’d innocence,
• To slake his wrath whom sin hath made our foe
• To turn Swift-rushing black perdition hence,
• Or drive away the slaughtering pestilence,
• To stand ’twixt us and our deserved smart
• But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.70

• XI
• Then thou the mother of so sweet a child
• Her false imagin’d loss cease to lament,
• And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild;
• Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
• And render him with patience what he lent;
• This if thou do he will an off-spring give,
• That till the worlds last-end shall make thy name to live.

[[ ]]53 Or wert thou] Or wert thou Mercy conjectured by John Heskin of Ch. Ch. Oxon. from Ode on Nativity, st. 15.