176
COWLEY'S POEMS.
The kind, instructing punishment enjoy;
Whom the red river cannot mend, the Red-sea shall destroy.
Whom the red river cannot mend, the Red-sea shall destroy.
The river yet gave one instruction more;
And, from the rotting fish and unconcocted gore
(Which was but water just before),
A loathsome host was quickly made,
That scal'd the banks, and with loud noise did all the country' invade.
As Nilus when he quits his sacred bed
(But like a friend he visits all the land
With welcome presents in his hand)
So did this Living Tide the fields o'erspread:
In vain th' alarmed country tries
To kill, their noisome enemies;
From th' unexhausted source still new recruits arise.
Nor does the earth these greedy troops suffice,
The towns and houses they possess,
The temples and the palaces,
Nor Pharaoh, nor his gods, they fear;
Both their importune croakings hear.
Unsatiate yet, they mount up higher,
Where never sun-born Frog durst to aspire,
And in the silken beds their slimy members place;
A luxury unknown before to all the watery race!
And, from the rotting fish and unconcocted gore
(Which was but water just before),
A loathsome host was quickly made,
That scal'd the banks, and with loud noise did all the country' invade.
As Nilus when he quits his sacred bed
(But like a friend he visits all the land
With welcome presents in his hand)
So did this Living Tide the fields o'erspread:
In vain th' alarmed country tries
To kill, their noisome enemies;
From th' unexhausted source still new recruits arise.
Nor does the earth these greedy troops suffice,
The towns and houses they possess,
The temples and the palaces,
Nor Pharaoh, nor his gods, they fear;
Both their importune croakings hear.
Unsatiate yet, they mount up higher,
Where never sun-born Frog durst to aspire,
And in the silken beds their slimy members place;
A luxury unknown before to all the watery race!
The water thus her wonders did produce;
But both were to no use;
As yet the sorcerers' mimick power serv'd for excuse.
But both were to no use;
As yet the sorcerers' mimick power serv'd for excuse.
