by John Milton
The sons of God most high;
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall
As other princes die.
25 8 Rise God, *judge thou the earth in might,
This wicked earth *redress,
For thou art he who shalt by right
The nations all possess.
Psalm LXXXIII
1 Be not thou silent now at length,
O God hold not thy peace,
Sit not thou still O God of strength,
We cry and do not cease.
5 2 For lo thy furious foes now *swell
And *storm outrageously,
And they that hate thee proud and fell
Exalt their heads full high.
3 Against thy people they †contrive
10 Their †plots and counsels deep;
*Them to ensnare they chiefly strive
*Whom thou dost hide and keep.
4 Come let us cut them off say they,
Till they no nation be,
15 That Israel’s name for ever may
Be lost in memory.
5 For they consult †with all their might,
And all as one in mind
Themselves against thee they unite
20 And in firm union bind.
6 The tents of Edom, and the brood
Of scornful Ishmael,
Moab, with them of Hagar’s blood
That in the desert dwell,
25 7 Gebal and Ammon there conspire,
And hateful Amalek,
The Philistines, and they of Tyre
Whose bounds the sea doth check.
8 With them great Ashur also bands
30 And doth confirm the knot;
All these have lent their armèd hands
To aid the sons of Lot.
9 Do to them as to Midian bold
That wasted all the coast,
35 To Sisera, and as is told
Thou didst to Jabin’s host,
When at the brook of Kishon old
They were repulsed and slain,
10 At Endor quite cut off, and rolled
40 As dung upon the plain.
11 As Zeb and Oreb evil sped
So let their princes speed;
As Zeba, and Zalmunna bled
So let their princes bleed.
45 12 For they amidst their pride have said
By right now shall we seize
†God’s houses, and will now invade
†Their Stately palaces
13 My God, O make them as a wheel,
50 No quiet let them find,
Giddy and restless let them reel
Like stubble from the wind.
14 As when an aged wood takes fire
Which on a sudden strays,
55 The greedy flame runs higher and higher
Till all the mountains blaze;
15 So with thy whirlwind them pursue,
And with thy tempest chase;
16 And till they *yield thee honour due, *They seek thy
60 Lord fill with shame their face. Name. Heb.
17 Ashamed and troubled let them be,
Troubled and shamed for ever,
Ever confounded, and so die
With shame, and ’scape it never.
65 18 Then shall they know that thou whose name
Jehovah is alone,
Art the most high, and thou the same
O’er all the earth art one.
Psalm LXXXIV
1 How lovely are thy dwellings fair!
O Lord of Hosts, how dear
The pleasant tabernacles are!
Where thou dost dwell so near.
5 2 My soul doth long and almost die
Thy courts O Lord to see;
My heart and flesh aloud do cry,
O living God, for thee.
3 There ev’n the sparrow freed from wrong
10 Hath found a house of rest;
The swallow there, to lay her young
Hath built her brooding nest;
Ev’n by thy altars Lord of Hosts
They find their safe abode,
15 And home they fly from round the coasts
Toward thee, my King, my God.
4 Happy, who in thy house reside
Where thee they ever praise;
5 Happy, whose strength in thee doth bide,
20 And in their hearts thy ways.
6 They pass through Baca’s thirsty vale,
That dry and barren ground,
As through a fruitful wat’ry dale
Where springs and show’rs abound.
25 7 They journey on from strength to strength
With joy and gladsome cheer
Till all before our God at length
In Sion do appear.
8 Lord God of Hosts hear now my prayer,
30 O Jacob’s God give ear;
9 Thou God our shield look on the face
Of thy anointed dear.
10 For one day in thy courts to be
Is better, and more blest
35 Than in the joys of vanity,
A thousand days at best.
I in the temple of my God
Had rather keep a door,
Than dwell in tents, and rich abode
40 With sin for evermore.
11 For God the Lord both sun and shield
Gives grace and glory bright;
No good from them shall be withheld
Whose ways are just and right.
45 12 Lord God of Hosts that reign ’st on high,
That man is truly blest,
Who only on thee doth rely,
And in thee only rest.
Psalm LXXXV
1 Thy land to favour graciously
Thou hast not Lord been slack;
Thou hast from hard captivity
Returnèd Jacob back.
5 2 Th’ iniquity thou didst forgive
That wrought thy people woe,
And all their sin, that did thee grieve
Hast hid where none shall know.
3 Thine anger all thou hadst removed,
10 And calmly didst return
From thy †fierce wrath which we had
proved
Far worse than fire to burn.
4 God of our saving health and peace,
Turn us, and us restore;
15 Thine indignation cause to cease
Toward us, and chide no more.
5 Wilt thou be angry without end,
For ever angry thus?
Wilt thou thy frowning ire extend
20 From age to age on us?
6 Wilt thou not *turn, and hear our voice,
And us again *revive,
That so thy people may rejoice
By thee preserved alive.
25 7 Cause us to see thy goodness Lord,
To us thy mercy show;
Thy saving health to us afford
And life in us renew.
8 And now what God the Lord will speak
30 I will go straight and hear,
For to his people he speaks peace
And to his saints full dear;
To his dear saints he will speak peace,
But let them never more
35 Return to folly, but surcease
To trespass as before.
9 Surely to such as do him fear
Salvation is at hand,
And glory shall ere long appear
40 To dwell within our land.
10 Mercy and Truth that long were missed
Now joyfully are met;
Sweet Peace and Righteousness have kissed
And hand in hand are set.
45 11 Truth from the earth like to a flow’r
Shall bud and blossom then,
And Justice from her Heavenly bow’r
Look down on mortal men.
12 The Lord will also then bestow
50 Whatever thing is good;
Our land shall forth in plenty throw<
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Her fruits to be our food.
13 Before him Righteousness shall go
His royal harbinger,
55 Then *will he come, and not be slow;
His footsteps cannot err.
Psalm LXXXVI
1 Thy gracious ear, O Lord, incline,
O hear me I thee pray,
For I am poor, and almost pine
With need, and sad decay.
5 2 Preserve my soul, †for I have trod
Thy ways, and love the just;
Save thou thy servant O my God
Who still in thee doth trust.
3 Pity me Lord for daily thee
10 I call; 4 O make rejoice
Thy servant’s soul; for Lord to thee
I lift my soul and voice;
5 For thou art good, thou Lord art prone
To pardon, thou to all
15 Art full of mercy, thou alone
To them that on thee call.
6 Unto my supplication Lord
Give ear, and to the cry
Of my incessant prayers afford
20 Thy hearing graciously.
7 I in the day of my distress
Will call on thee for aid;
For thou wilt grant me free accéss
And answer, what I prayed.
25 8 Like thee among the gods is none
O Lord, nor any works
Of all that other gods have done
Like to thy glorious works.
9 The nations all whom thou hast made
30 Shall come, and all shall frame
To bow them low before thee Lord,
And glorify thy name.
10 For great thou art, and wonders great
By thy strong hand are done;
35 Thou in thy everlasting seat
Remainest God alone.
11 Teach me O Lord thy way most right;
I in thy truth will bide;
To fear thy name my heart unite,
40 So shall it never slide.
12 Thee will I praise O Lord my God
Thee honour, and adore
With my whole heart, and blaze abroad
Thy name for evermore.
45 13 For great thy mercy is toward me,
And thou hast freed my soul,
Ev’n from the lowest Hell set free,
From deepest darkness foul.
14 O God the proud against me rise
50 And violent men are met
To seek my life, and in their eyes
No fear of thee have set.
15 But thou Lord art the God most mild,
Readiest thy grace to show,
55 Slow to be angry, and art styled
Most merciful, most true.
16 O turn to me thy face at length,
And me have mercy on;
Unto thy servant give thy strength,
60 And save thy handmaid’s son.
17 Some sign of good to me afford,
And let my foes then see
And be ashamed, because thou Lord
Dost help and comfort me.
Psalm LXXXVII
1 Among the holy mountains high
Is his foundation fast;
There seated in his sanctuary,
His temple there is placed.
5 2 Sion’s fair gates the Lord loves more
Than all the dwellings fair
Of Jacob’s land, though there be store,
And all within his care.
3 City of God, most glorious things
10 Of thee abroad are spoke;
4 I mention Egypt, where proud kings
Did our forefathers yoke;
I mention Babel to my friends,
Philistia full of scorn,
15 And Tyre with Ethiop’s utmost ends:
Lo this man there was born.
5 But twice that praise shall in our ear
Be said of Sion last:
This and this man was born in her,
20 High God shall fix her fast.
6 The Lord shall write it in a scroll
That ne’er shall be outworn,
When he the nations doth enroll,
That this man there was born.
25 7 Both they who sing, and they who dance
With sacred songs are there;
In thee fresh brooks and soft streams glance
And all my fountains clear.
Psalm LXXXVIII
1 Lord God that dost me save and keep,
All day to thee I cry;
And all night long, before thee weep
Before thee prostrate lie.
5 2 Into thy presence let my prayer
With sighs devout ascend;
And to my cries, that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.
3 For cloyed with woes and trouble store
10 Surcharged my soul doth lie;
My life at death’s uncheerful door
Unto the grave draws nigh.
4 Reckoned I am with them that pass
Down to the dismal pit;
15 I am a *man, but weak alas
And for that name unfit.
5 From life discharged and parted quite
Among the dead to sleep,
And like the slain in bloody fight
20 That in the grave lie deep,
Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dost never more regard:
Them from thy hand delivered o’er
Death’s hideous house hath barred.
25 6 Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,
Where thickest darkness hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.
7 Thy wrath from which no shelter saves
30 Full sore doth press on me;
*Thou break’st upon me all thy waves,
And all thy waves break me.
8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange,
And mak’st me odious,
35 Me to them odious, for they change,
And I here pent up thus.
9 Through sorrow, and affliction great
Mine eye grows dim and dead;
Lord all the day I thee entreat,
40 My hands to thee I spread.
10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?
Shall the deceased arise
And praise thee from their loathsome bed
With pale and hollow eyes?
45 11 Shall they thy loving kindness tell
On whom the grave hath hold,
Or they who in perdition dwell
Thy faithfulness unfold?
12 In darkness can thy mighty hand
50 Or wondrous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion?
13 But I to thee O Lord do cry
Ere yet my life be spent,
55 And up to thee my prayer doth hie
Each morn, and thee prevent.
14 Why wilt thou Lord my soul forsake,
And hide thy face from me,
15 That am already bruised, and †shake
60 With terror sent from thee;
Bruised, and afflicted and so low
As ready to expire,
While I thy terrors undergo
Astonished with thine ire.
65 16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow,
Thy threat ’nings cut me through.
17 All day they round about me go,
Like waves they me pursue.
18 Lover and friend thou hast removed
70 And severed from me far.
They fly me now whom I have loved,
And as in darkness are.
UNCOLLECTED ENGLISH POEMS
On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of Colchester
Fairfax, whose name in arms through Europe rings
Filling each mouth with envy, or with praise,
And all her jealous monarchs with amaze,
And rumours loud,
that daunt remotest kings,
5 Thy firm unshaken virtue ever brings
Victory home, though new rebellions raise
Their Hydra heads, and the false North displays
Her broken league, to imp their serpent wings,
O yet a nobler task awaits thy hand;
10 For what can war, but endless war still breed,
Till truth, and right from violence be freed,
And public faith cleared from the shameful brand
Of public fraud. In vain doth valour bleed
While avarice, and rapine share the land.
To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652,
On the Proposals of Certain Ministers of the Committee for Propagation of the Gospel
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,
5 And on the neck of crownèd Fortune proud
Hast reared God’s trophies and his work pursued,
While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued,
And Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud,
And Worcester’s laureate wreath; yet much remains
10 To conquer still; peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war, new foes arise
Threat’ning to bind our souls with secular chains:
Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves whose Gospel is their maw.
To Sir Henry Vane the Younger
Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old,
Than whom a better senator ne’er held
The helm of Rome, when gowns not arms repelled
The fierce Epirot and the African bold:
5 Whether to settle peace or to unfold
The drift of hollow states, hard to be spelled,
Then to advise how war may best, upheld,
Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,
In all her equipage; besides to know
10 Both spiritual power and civil, what each means,
What severs each, thou hast learnt, which few have done.
The bounds of either sword to thee we owe;
Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.
To Mr Cyriack Skinner upon his Blindness
Cyriack, this three years’ day these eyes, though clear
To outward view, of blemish or of spot;
Bereft of light their seeing have forgot,
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear
5 Of sun or moon or star throughout the year,
Or man or woman. Yet I argue not
Against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bate a jot