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20

The wolves have prey'd: and look, the gentle day, Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey.*

21

Night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger.

22

This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.

23

The glowworm shews the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

24

6-v. 3.

7-iii. 2.

30-iv. 4.

36-i. 5.

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day.

25

The day begins to break, and night is fled,
Whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the earth.

26

36-i. 1.

21-ii. 2.

Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

His steeds to water at those springs

On chaliced flowers that lies;

And winking Mary-buds begin

Το ope their golden eyes. .

27

Look, how the sun begins to set;

31-ii. 3.

How ugly night comes breathing at his heels:
Even with the vail and dark'ning of the sun,

To close the day up, life is done.

26-v. 9.

* Night---dragon wing.

28

How still the evening is,

As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony!

6-ii. 3.

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The silent hours steal on,

And flaky darkness breaks within the east.

31

24-v. 3.

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:
Now the lated traveller apace,

spurs

To gain the timely inn.

32

15-iii. 3.

This night, methinks, is but the day-light sick,

It looks a little paler; 'tis a day,

Such as the day is, when the sun is hid.

33

9-v. 1.

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
Whiles night's black agents to their prey do rouse.
15-iii. 2.

34

By the clock 'tis day,

And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:
Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of earth intomb,
When living light should kiss it?

35

15-ii. 4.

Look, the world's comforter, with weary gait,
His day's hot task hath ended in the west:
The owl, night's herald, shrieks, 'tis very late;
The sheep are gone to fold, birds to their nest;
And coal-black clouds that shadow heaven's light,
Do summon us to part, and bid good night.

Poems.

36

Swift, swift, you dragons of the night!-that dawning May bare the raven's eye.

37

The gaudy, babbling, and remorseful day
Is crept into the bosom of the sea;

31-ii. 2.

And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades,
That drag the tragic melancholy night;

Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings,
Clip dead men's graves, and from their misty jaws
Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air.

38

22-iv. 1.

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' mansion; such a waggoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.

39

Sable Night, mother of Dread and Fear,
Upon the world dim darkness doth display,
And in her vaulty prison stows the day.

40

35-iii. 2.

The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth.

41

Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task fordone.

Now the wasted brands do glow,

Poems.

26-v. 9.

Whilst the scritch-owl, scritching loud,

Puts the wretch, that lies in woe,
In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night,

That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecat's team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream.

7-v. 2.

42

The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense
Repairs itself by rest.

31-ii. 2.

43

Civil night,

Thou sober-suited matron, all in black.

35-iii. 2.

44

-The bat hath flown

His cloister'd flight;

The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal.

45

15-iii. 2.

That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe, and lights the lower world,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen,
In murders, and in outrage, bloody here;
But when, from under this terrestrial ball,
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,
And darts his light through every guilty hole,
Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,
The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs,
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves!

46

17-iii. 2.

Jove's lightnings, the precursors

O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-out-running were not: The fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune
Seem'd to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

47

We often see, against some storm,

A silence in the heavens, the rack' stand still,
The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
As hush as death: anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region.

1-i. 2.

36-ii. 2.

1 Light clouds.

48

The cross blue lightning seem'd to open

The breast of heaven.

49

29-i. 3.

Things, that love night,

Love not such nights as these; the wrathful skies
Gallow the very wanderers of the dark,

And make them keep their caves: Since I was man,
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard: man's nature cannot carry
The affliction, nor the fear.

50

Sometime we see a cloud that 's dragonish;
A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion,
A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock,

A forked mountain, or blue promontory

With trees upon 't, that nod unto the world,

34-iii. 2.

And mock our eyes with air: Thou hast seen these signs;

They are black vesper's pageants.

That, which is now a horse, even with a thought,
The rack" dislimns; and makes it indistinct,

As water is in water.

My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is

Even such a body: here I am Antony;

Yet cannot hold this visible shape.

51

Yon grey lines,

That fret the clouds, are messengers of day.

52

30-iv. 12.

29-ii. 1.

Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts, and hurricanoes, spout

Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!

You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,

m Scare, or frighten.

n Fleeting clouds.
P Avant couriers. French.

• Quick as thought.

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