Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1845.

Ixyon

LXXXIII. Sands Penuen

OH, if a man whose guilt speakes in his face,

Whose sins exclude from all good hope of grace,

May dare attempt, with blood-polluted hands,

To touch thy pedestell, whereon there stands,

Wrought by Divine art, such a world of glory,

As to all worlds shall be an ample story,

Then let Ixyan (rich in nought but shame,

And all the adjuncts to a vast defame,)

With teares petitionarie thee desire

To purge his sins with thine immortall fire,

Clense what’s corrupt, make pure what is most fowle,

And of my speckled make a glorious soule:

The more my sin, the greater is my fame,

If thou do purge it with thy hallowed flame.

Will not yon christall-stellified gate

Ope, and with milde aspect adorne my fate?

Heare me, dread Iove, or if thou wilt not heare,

Yet take some notice of these penitent teares.

Could my tongue speak as loud as doth my sinne,

With my shril praiers ere now th’adst rouzed bin;

Yet still Ile pray, and with my dismall cries

Fan ope thy glories curtaine, the blew skies,

And, till my sinnes with mercie be commixt,

A kneeling living statue here be fixt.

At this th’ appeased Heavens began to smile,

And this great Deitie, that had all this while,

With an attentive care, observed the prayers

Ixyon spent, his penitence and teares,

(Prompted by pittie,) doth resolve once more

To make Ixyon happier then before;

And for his kingdome’s losse hee meanes to give

A place of residence, where hee shall live.