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COWLEY'S POEMS.
Me from the womb the midwife Muse did take:
She cut my navel, wash'd me, and mine head
With her own hands she fashioned;
She did a covenant with me make,
And circumcis'd my tender soul, and thus she spake:
"Thou of my church shalt be;
"Hate and renounce," said she,
"Wealth, honour, pleasures, all the world, for me.
"Thou neither great at court, nor in the war,
"Nor at th' exchange, shalt be, nor at the wrangling bar:
"Content thyself with the small barren praise,
"That neglected verse docs raise."
She spake, and all my years to come
Took their unlucky doom.
Their several ways of life let others choose,
Their several pleasures let them use,
But I was born for Love, and for a Muse.
She cut my navel, wash'd me, and mine head
With her own hands she fashioned;
She did a covenant with me make,
And circumcis'd my tender soul, and thus she spake:
"Thou of my church shalt be;
"Hate and renounce," said she,
"Wealth, honour, pleasures, all the world, for me.
"Thou neither great at court, nor in the war,
"Nor at th' exchange, shalt be, nor at the wrangling bar:
"Content thyself with the small barren praise,
"That neglected verse docs raise."
She spake, and all my years to come
Took their unlucky doom.
Their several ways of life let others choose,
Their several pleasures let them use,
But I was born for Love, and for a Muse.
With Fate what boots it to contend?
Such I began, such am, and so must end.
The star that did my being frame
Was but a lambent flame,
And some small light it did dispense,
But neither heat nor influence.
No matter, Cowley! let proud Fortune see,
That thou canst her despise no less than she does thee.
Let all her gifts the portion be
Of Folly, Lust, and Flattery,
Such I began, such am, and so must end.
The star that did my being frame
Was but a lambent flame,
And some small light it did dispense,
But neither heat nor influence.
No matter, Cowley! let proud Fortune see,
That thou canst her despise no less than she does thee.
Let all her gifts the portion be
Of Folly, Lust, and Flattery,
