(Ilustration)
CAMBRIDGE
Printed by Thom. Buck,
and Roger Daniel, printers
to the Universitie.
1 6 3 3.
Did his youth scatter poetry wherein
Lay Love's philosophy? Was every sin
Pictured in his sharp satires, made so foul,
That some have fear'd sin's shapes, and kept their soul
Safer by reading verse: did he give days,
Past marble monuments, to those whose praise
He would perpetuate? Did he—I fear
Envy will doubt—these at his twentieth year?
But, more matured, did his rich soul conceive
And in harmonious holy numbers weave
A crown of sacred sonnets, fit to adorn
A dying martyr's brow, or to be worn
On that blest head of Mary Magdalen,
After she wiped Christ's feet, but not till then;
Did he—fit for such penitents as she
And he to use—leave us a Litany
Which all devout men love, and doubtless shall,
As times grow better, grow more classical?
Did he write hymns, for piety and wit,
Equal to those great grave Prudentius writ?