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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait. — John Shaqi

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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

Name: Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.
Author: Stanley, Thomas

Stanley, Thomas

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Stanley, Thomas, 1625-1678

Thou whose sole name all passions doth comprise:
    Youngest and eldest of the Deities,
    Born without parents, whose unbounded reign
    Moves the firm earth, fixeth the floating main,
    Inverts the course of heaven, and from the deep                    5
    Awakes those souls that in dark Lethe sleep,
    By thy mysterious chains seeking t'unite,
    Once more, the long-since-torn hermaphrodite!
    He who thy willing prisoner long was vow'd,
    And uncompell'd beneath thy sceptre bow'd,                        10
    Returns at last in thy soft fetters bound,
    With victory, though not with freedom, crown'd:
    And, (of his dangers past a grateful sign,)
    Suspends this tablet at thy numerous shrine.


          THE GLOW-WORM.

    Stay, fairest Chariessa, stay and mark
    This animated gem,[6:1] whose fainter spark
    Of fading light, its birth had from the dark:

    A star thought by the erring[6:2] passenger
    Which falling from its native orb, dropped here,                   5
    And makes the earth, its centre, now its sphere.

    Should many of these sparks together be,
    He that the unknown light far off should see
    Would think it a terrestrial galaxy.

    Take 't up, fair Saint; see how it mocks thy fright;              10
    The paler flame doth not yield heat, though light,
    Which thus deceives[6:3] thy reason, through thy sight.

    But see how quickly it, ta'en up, doth fade,
    (To shine in darkness only being made),
    By th' brightness of thy light turn'd to a shade,                 15

    And burnt to ashes by thy flaming eyes!
    On the chaste altar of thy hand it dies,
    As to thy greater light a sacrifice.


          TO CHARIESSA,[7:1]

      _Desiring her to Burn his Verses._

    These papers, Chariessa, let thy breath
    Condemn, thy hand unto the flames bequeath;
    'Tis fit who gave them life, should give them death.

    And whilst[7:2] in curled flames to heaven they rise,
    Each trembling sheet shall, as it upwards flies,                   5
    Present itself to thee a sacrifice.

    Then when above[7:3] its native orb it came,
    And reach'd the lesser lights o' th' sky, this flame,
    Contracted to a star, should wear thy name,

    Or falling down on earth from its bright sphere,                  10
    Shall in a diamond's shape its lustre bear,
    And trouble (as it did before) thine ear.

    But thou wilt cruel even in mercy be,
    Unequal in thy justice, who dost free
    Things without sense from flames, and yet not me!                 15


          ON MR. FLETCHER'S WORKS [1647].[8:1]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

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