Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/51

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COWLEY.
41
In tears I'll waste these eyes,
By Love so vainly fed;
Cowley.So lust of old the Deluge punished.

All arm'd in brass the richest dress of war,
(A dismal glorious sight) he shone afar.
The sun himself started with sudden fright,
To see his beams return so dismal bright.
Cowley.

An universal consternation:

His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws
Tear up the ground; then runs he wild about,
Lashing his angry tail and roaring out.
Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there;
Trees, though no wind is stirring, shake with fear;
Silence and horror fill the place around:
Echo itself dares scarce repeat the sound.
Cowley.

THEIR fictions were often violent and unnatural.

Of his Mistress bathing:

The fish around her crowded, as they do
To the false light that treacherous fishers shew,
And all with as much ease might taken be,
As she at first took me:
For ne'er did light so clear
Among the waves appear,
Though every night the sun himself set there.
Cowley.

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