Selections of Poetry for Reading Or Study

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: RIVERS PERSONIFIED. Rivers, arise; whether thou be the son Of utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or gulphy Dun, Or Trent, who, like some earth-born giant, spreads His thirty arms along the indented meads; Or sullen Mole, that runneth underneath; Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death; Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lee, Or coaly Tyne, or ancient hallowed Dee; Or Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name; Or Medway smooth, or royal-towered Thame. Milton. SPECULATION REPROVED. Abstain To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope Things not revealed, which the invisible King, Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night; To none communicable in earth, or heaven: Enough is left besides to search, and know. But knowledge is as food, and needs no less Her temperance over appetite, to know In measure what the mind may well contain, Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind. Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid; Leave them to God above; Him serve, and fear! Of other creatures, as Him pleases best, Wherever placed, let Him dispose. Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee, and thy being. But, apt the mind, or fancy is to rove Unchecked, and of her roving is no end Till, warned, or by experience taught, she learn That, not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure, and subtle; but, to know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom: what is more, is fume, Or emptiness, or fond impertinence; And renders us, in things that most concern, Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek. Milton. GALILEO. The moon whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views, At evening from the top of Fesole, Or in Valdarno...