Classic Poem

Ah , what a treasury of wisdom lies
In a good book! and who would not be wise?
What founts of sweetness and of strength well up
From its deep heart! who would not quaff the cup?
The bees must know where honey-dews abound;
Oh, for a human instinct as profound!
The birds must fathom where the south land lies;
Oh, for an intuition half as wise!
For what are intuitions, but the soul's
Blind reachings after its supremest goals;
Divining helps whereby it may essay
A stronger sweep along its upward way;
Seeking in glad, yet reverential mood,
All gentle friendships with the wise and good
Of every nation, age: and, look around!
Shall not such helps, such friendships here be found?
O sages, poets, who shall fill this place
With lavish store of wisdom, sweetness, grace!
Here we may pay our homage and grow wise
And glad beneath your helpful ministries.
Here we may offer the allegiance meet
To blind old Homer, sit at Milton's feet;
And learn of both, as fails the outward sight,
To trim anew the spirit's inner light:
May sing with Chaucer, walk in faërie land
With sweet-lipped Spenser; taking Dante's hand,
Explore the dark abysses where, denied
All hope of exit, hapless souls abide;
May summon Shakespeare—in himself a host—
King Lear and sweet Ophelia, Hamlet's ghost,
Sad Desdemona, Egypt's peerless queen,
Coming and going on the shifting scene;
Commune with Cowper, walk afield with Burns,
And listen to him as he sings by turns,
Of luckless Tam O'Shanter and his mare,
Sweet Highland Mary and the Brigs of Ayr;
Or coming down to later times, rehearse
With Tennyson his grand, immortal verse;
Talk with dogmatic, scholarly Carlyle,
Uncouth, but grimly honest all the while;
Abide with our own Emerson, or go
A-wooing after nature with Thoreau;
Though, for that matter, all the poets woo
The gentle nymph,—and our immortal few,
Our Whittier, and Longfellow, and Holmes,
Bryant and Lowell,—whosoever roams
With either, sees fair nature with new eyes,
And life with larger possibilities.

Now tend your ear a while
 To a tale that I shall tell,
Of a lusty lively Parliament
 That goes on passing well.

Which makes our Gratious King, a King
 Of so much worth and glory,
His like is not to be seen or found
 In any Humane Story.

Win him who knows how many Crowns,
 With losse of two or three,
Within so short a time as this,
 As Wonder is to see,

The Country eas'd, the City pleas'd,
 O what a World is this!
When upright men did stand at Helme,
 How can we fail or miss?

And yet beyond all this, the King
 Doth in abundance swim,
Gramercy K—— and Stroud say I,
 Haslerigge, H—— Hampden, Pym.

And when as our Church Government
 Was fallen into Disorder,
As that upon Grosse Popery
 It seemed somewhat to border.

So sweet a Course is taken now,
 As no man need to fear,
For Bishops learn'd, and Learned men
 Have nothing to do here:

But every one shall teach and preach,
 As best becomes his Sense:
And so we'll banish Popery,
 And send it packing hence.

Now for that happy Church and State,
 Drest up so fine and trym:
Gramercy K—— and Stroud , I say
 Haslerigge, H——Hampden, Pym.

For Arbitrary Government,
 Star-Chamber, High Commission,
They will themselves do all that work,
 By their good Kings permission.

If any else presume to do't,
 They weigh it not a straw,
They'll club such sawcy Fellows down,
 As Beasts debarr'd of Law.

And let no Wights henceforth presume
 To hold it Rime or Reason,
That Judges shall determine what
 Is Felony or Treason:

But what the Worthies say is so,
 Is Treason to award,
Albeit in Councel only spoke,
 And at the Councel-board.

I'le shew you yet another thing,
 Which you'll rejoyce to see,
The Prince and People know that these
 Men cannot Traytors be.

Then let our King, our Church and State
 Acknowledge as is due,
The Benefits they do receive
 From this right Divine crue.

And for this Sea of Liberty,
 Wherein we yet do swim,
Gramercy K ——and Stroud say I,
  Haslerigge, H——Hampden, Pym .