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Home  »  The Book of Restoration Verse  »  John Milton (1608–1674)

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

The Star That Bids the Shepherd Fold

John Milton (1608–1674)

From ‘Comus

i
THE STAR that bids the Shepherd fold,

Now the top of Heav’n doth hold,

And the gilded Car of Day,

His glowing Axle doth allay

In the steep Atlantick stream,

And the slope Sun his upward beam

Shoots against the dusky Pole,

Pacing toward the other gole

Of his Chamber in the East.

Mean while welcom Joy, and Feast,

Midnight shout, and revelry,

Tipsie dance, and Jollity.

Braid your Locks with rosie Twine

Dropping odours, dropping Wine.

Rigor now is gon to bed,

And Advice with scrupulous head,

Strict Age, and sowre Severity,

With their grave Saws in slumber ly.

We that are of purer fire

Imitate the Starry Quire,

Who in their nightly watchfull Sphears,

Lead in swift round the Months and Years.

The Sounds, and Seas with all their finny drove

Now to the Moon in wavering Morrice move,

And on the Tawny Sands and Shelves,

Trip the pert Fairies and the dapper Elves;

By dimpled Brook, and Fountain brim,

The Wood-Nymphs deckt with Daisies trim,

Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:

What hath night to do with sleep?

Night hath better sweets to prove,

Venus now wakes, and wak’ns Love.

Com let us our rights begin,

’Tis onely day-light that makes Sin

Which these dun shades will ne’re report.

Hail Goddesse of Nocturnal sport

Dark vaild Cotytto, t’ whom the secret flame

Of mid-night Torches burns; mysterious Dame

That ne’re art call’d, but when the Dragon woom

Of Stygian darknes spets her thickest gloom,

And makes one blot of all the ayr,

Stay thy cloudy Ebon chair,

Wherin thou rid’st with Hecat’, and befriend

Us thy vow’d Priests, til utmost end

Of all thy dues be done, and none left out,

Ere the blabbing Eastern scout,

The nice Morn on th’ Indian steep

From her cabin’d loop hole peep,

And to the tel-tale Sun discry

Our conceal’d Solemnity.

Com, knit hands, and beat the ground,

In a light fantastick round.