Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

When the Assault Was Intended to the City

John Milton (1608–1674)

CAPTAIN or Colonel, or Knight in Arms,

Whose chance on these defenceless dores may sease,

If ever deed of honour did thee please,

Guard them, and him within protect from harms,

He can requite thee, for he knows the charms

That call Fame on such gentle acts as these,

And he can spred thy Name o’re Lands and Seas,

What ever clime the Suns bright circle warms.

Lift not thy spear against the Muses Bowre,

The great Emathian Conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when Temple and Towre

Went to the ground: And the repeated air

Of sad Electra’s Poet had the power

To save th’ Athenian Walls from ruine bare.