The sea's too rough for verse; who rhymes upon 't

With Xerxes strives to fetter th' Hellespont.

My tears will keep no channel, know no laws

To guide their streams, but (like the waves, their cause)

Run with disturbance, till they swallow me

As a description of his misery.

But can his spacious virtue find a grave

Within th' imposthumed bubble of a wave?

Whose learning if we sound, we must confess

20The sea but shallow, and him bottomless.