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378
WALLER.
The two next poems are upon the King's behaviour at the death of Buckingham, and upon his Navy.
He has, in the first, used the Pagan deities with great propriety;
'Twas want of such a precedent as this
Made the old Heathen frame their gods amiss.
Made the old Heathen frame their gods amiss.
In the poem on the Navy, those lines are very noble which suppose the King's power secure against a second Deluge; so noble, that it were almost criminal to remark the mistake of centre for surface, or to say that the empire of the sea would be worth little if it were not that the waters terminate in land.
The poem upon Sallee has forcible sentiments; but the conclusion is feeble. That on the Repairs of St. Paul's has something vulgar and obvious; such as the mention of Amphion; and something violent and harsh, as
So all our minds with his conspire to grace
The Gentiles' great apostle, and deface
Those state-obscuring sheds, that like a chain
Seem'd to confine, and setter him again:
Which the glad saint shakes off at his command,
As once the viper from his sacred hand.
The Gentiles' great apostle, and deface
Those state-obscuring sheds, that like a chain
Seem'd to confine, and setter him again:
Which the glad saint shakes off at his command,
As once the viper from his sacred hand.
So
