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Last 20 Shows To Cyriack Skinner by John Milton Cyriack, whose grandsire, on the royal bench Of British Themis, with no mean applause Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws, Which others at their bar so often wrench; To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench In mirth, that after no repenting draws; Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause, And what the Swede intends, and what the French. To measure life learn thou betimes, and know Toward solid good what leads the nearest way; For other things mild ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
To Mr. Lawrence by John MiltonLawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son, Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire, Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire Help waste a sullen day, what may be won From the hard season gaining? Time will run On smoother, till Favonius reinspire The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire The lily and rose, that neither sow'd nor spun. What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise To hear the lute ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
The Retreat by Henry VaughanHappy those early days, when I Shined in my Angel-infancy! Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race, Or taught my soul to fancy aught But a white, celestial thought; When yet I had not walk'd above A mile or two from my first Love, And looking back, at that short space Could see a glimpse of His bright face; When on some gilded cloud or flower My gazing soul would dwell an hour, And in those weaker glories spy Some shadows of eternity; Before I taug ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
The Gifts of God by George HerbertWhen God at first made Man, Having a glass of blessings standing by; Let us (said He) pour on him all we can— Let the world's riches, which dispersèd lie, Contract into a span. So strength first made a way; Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure. When almost all was out, God made a stay, Perceiving that alone, of all His treasure, Rest in the bottom lay; For if I should (said He) Bestow this jewel also on My creature, He would a ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
The Noble Nature by Ben JonsonIt is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make Man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night— It was the plant and flower of Light. In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures life may perfect be. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Character of a Happy Life by Henry WottonHow happy is he born and taught That serveth not another's will; Whose armour is his honest thought And simple truth his utmost skill; Whose passions not his masters are; Whose soul is still prepared for death, Not tied unto the world with care Of public fame, or private breath; Who envies none that chance doth raise, Or vice; who never understood How deepest wounds are given by praise, Nor rules of state, but rules of good; Who hath his life from rumours freed, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
On His Blindness by John MiltonWhen I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest He returning chide,— Doth God exact day-labour, light denied? I fondly ask:—But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies: God doth not need Either man's work, or His own gifts, who best Bear His mild yoke, they serve ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
When the Assault Was Intended to the City by John MiltonCaptain, or Colonel, or Knight in Arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, If deed of honour did thee ever please, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. He can requite thee; for he knows the charms That call fame on such gentle acts as these, And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas, Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms. Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower: The great Emathian conqueror bid spare The house of Pindaru ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Death the Leveller by James ShirleyThe glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things; There is no armour against fate; Death lays his icy hand on kings: Sceptre and crown Must tumble down, And in the dust be equal made With the poor crooked scythe and spade. Some men with swords may reap the field, And plant fresh laurels where they kill; But their strong nerves at last must yield— They tame but one another still: Early or late They stoop to fate, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
The Last Conqueror by James ShirleyVictorious men of earth, no more Proclaim how wide your empires are; Though you bind-in every shore And your triumphs reach as far As night or day, Yet you, proud monarchs, must obey And mingle with forgotten ashes, when Death calls ye to the crowd of common men. Devouring Famine, Plague, and War, Each able to undo mankind, Death's servile emissaries are; Nor to these alone confined, He hath at will More quaint and subtle ways to kill; A smil ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey by Francis BeaumontMortality, behold and fear What a change of flesh is here! Think how many royal bones Sleep within these heaps of stones; Here they lie, had realms and lands, Who now want strength to stir their hands, Where from their pulpits seal'd with dust They preach, "In greatness is no trust." Here's an acre sown indeed With the richest royallest seed That the earth did e'er suck in Since the first man died for sin: Here the bones of birth have cried, "Though gods they were, as ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Lycidas by John MiltonElegy on a Friend drowned in the Irish Channel, 1637 Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, And with forced fingers rude Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear Compels me to disturb your season due: For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland by Andrew MarvellThe forward youth that would appear, Must now forsake his Muses dear, Nor in the shadows sing His numbers languishing. 'Tis time to leave the books in dust, And oil the unused armour's rust, Removing from the wall The corslet of the hall. So restless Cromwell could not cease In the inglorious arts of peace, But through adventurous war Urgèd his active star: And like the three-fork'd lightning, first Breaking the clouds where it was nurst, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
On the Late Massacre in Piemont by John MiltonAvenge, O Lord! Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold; Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones, Forget not: in Thy book record their groans Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that roll'd Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To Heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow O'er al ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687 by John DrydenFrom Harmony, from heavenly Harmony This universal frame began: When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, Arise, ye more than dead! Then cold and hot, and moist and dry, In order to their stations leap. And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity by John MiltonThis is the month, and this the happy morn Wherein the Son of Heaven's Eternal King Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing That He our deadly forfeit should release, And with His Father work us a perpetual peace. That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable, And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty Wherewith He wont at Heaven's high council-table To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, He laid aside; ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Saint John Baptist by William DrummondThe last and greatest herald of Heaven's King, Girt with rough skins, hies to the deserts wild, Among that savage brood the woods forth bring, Which he more harmless found than man, and mild. His food was locusts, and what there doth spring, With honey that from virgin hives distill'd; Parch'd body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing Made him appear, long since from earth exiled. There burst he forth: All ye whose hopes rely On God, with me amidst these deserts mourn, Re ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
The World's Way by William ShakespeareTired with all these, for restful death I cry— As, to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn, And gilded honour shamefully misplaced, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, And right perfection wrongfully disgraced, And strength by limping sway disabled, And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill, And simple truth miscall'd simplicity, And captive Good attending capt ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Doth then the world go thus by William DrummondDoth then the world go thus, doth all thus move? Is this the justice which on earth we find? Is this that firm decree which all doth bind? Are these your influences, Powers above? Those souls which vice's moody mists most blind, Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove; And they who thee, poor idol Virtue! love, Ply like a feather toss'd by storm and wind. Ah! if a Providence doth sway this all, Why should best minds groan under most distress? Or why shoul ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
The Lessons of Nature by William DrummondOf this fair volume which we World do name, If we the sheets and leaves could turn with care, Of Him who it corrects, and did it frame, We clear might read the art and wisdom rare: Find out His power which wildest powers doth tame, His providence extending everywhere, His justice which proud rebels doth not spare In every page, no period of the same. But silly we, like foolish children, rest Well pleased with colour'd vellum, leaves of gold, Fair dangling ribbands, le ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
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