• Anonymous translation from the German

    FEAR not, O little flock! the foe
    Who madly seeks your overthrow,
        Dread not his rage and power;
    What though your courage sometimes faints?
    His seeming triumph o’er God’s saints
        Lasts but a little hour.

    Be of good cheer; your cause belongs
    To him who can avenge your wrongs,...

  • The Lark now leaves his watery nest,
      And climbing shakes his dewy wings,
    He takes your window for the east,
      And to implore your light, he sings;
    Awake, awake, the morn will never rise,
    Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.

    The merchant bows unto the seaman’s star,
      The ploughman from the sun his season takes;
    But...

  • Hymn and Prayer for the Use of Believers

    LORD! when those glorious lights I see
      With which thou hast adorned the skies,
    Observing how they movèd be,
      And how their splendor fills mine eyes,
    Methinks it is too large a grace,
      But that thy love ordained it so,—
    That creatures in so high a place
      Should servants be to man below...

  •     IN melancholic fancy,
          Out of myself,
        In the vulcan dancy,
        All the world surveying,
        Nowhere staying,
          Just like a fairy elf;
    Out o’er the tops of highest mountains skipping,
    Out o’er the hills, the trees and valleys tripping,
    Out o’er the ocean seas, without an oar or shipping.
      Hallo, my fancy,...

  • Shapcot! to thee the Fairy State
    I with discretion dedicate:
    Because thou prizest things that are
    Curious and unfamiliar,
    Take first the feast; these dishes gone,
    We’ll see the Fairy-court anon.
    A little mushroom-table spread,
    After short prayers, they set on bread,
    A moon-parched grain of purest wheat,
    With some small...

  • From the Latin by Leigh Hunt
    WE the fairies blithe and antic,
    Of dimensions not gigantic,
    Though the moonshine mostly keep us,
    Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.

    Stolen sweets are always sweeter;
    Stolen kisses much completer;
    Stolen looks are nice in chapels;
    Stolen, stolen be your apples.

    When to bed the world are...

  • Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud,
    Not of war only, but detractions rude,
    Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,
    To peace and truth thy glorious way hast ploughed,
    And on the neck of crownèd fortune proud
    Hast reared God’s trophies, and his work pursued,
    While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots inbued,
    And Dunbar field...

  • From “Hudibras,” Part I.
      HIS puissant sword unto his side
    Near his undaunted heart was tied,
    With basket hilt that would hold broth,
    And serve for fight and dinner both.
    In it he melted lead for bullets
    To shoot at foes, and sometimes pullets,
    To whom he bore so fell a grutch
    He ne’er gave quarter to any such.
    The...

  • We are little airy creatures,
    All of different voice and features;
    One of us in glass is set,
    One of us you ’ll find in jet,
    T’other you may see in tin,
    And the fourth a box within;
    If the fifth you should pursue,
    It can never fly from you.

  • Air: “o Mary, heave a sigh for me.”

    O MARE æva si forme;
      Forme ure tonitru;
    Iambicum as amandum,
      Olet Hymen promptu;
    Mihi is vetas an ne se,
      As humano erebi;
    Olet mecum marito te,
      Or eta beta pi.

    Alas, plano more meretrix,
      Mi ardor vel uno;
    Inferiam ure artis base,
      Tolerat me urebo....