Page:The Works of Abraham Cowley - volume 2 (ed. Aikin) (1806).djvu/191

The rotting corpse shall so infect the air,
Beget such plagues and putrid venoms there,
That by thine own dead shall be slain
All thy few living that remain.
As one who buys, surveys, a ground,
So the destroying-angel measures it around;
So careful and so strict he is,
Lest any nook or corner he should miss:
He walks about the perishing nation,
Ruin behind him stalks and empty Desolation.

Then shall the market and the pleading-place
Be chok'd with brambles and o'ergrown with grass:
The serpents through thy streets shall roll,
And in the lower rooms the wolves shall howl,
And thy gilt chambers lodge the raven and the owl,
And all the wing'd ill-omens of the air,
Though no new ills can be foreboded there:
The lion then shall to the leopard say,
"Brother leopard, come away;
“Behold a land which God has given us in prey!
"Behold a land from whence we see
"Mankind expuls'd, his and our common enemy!"
The brother leopard shakes himself, and does not stay.

The glutted vultures shall expect in vain
New armies to be slain;
Shall find at last the business done,
Leave their consumed quarters, and be gone: