MILTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 17 August 1893, Page 39

MILTON.

All England gave a welcome to her king, The church bells rang a merry jubilee; . And vice, long pent, and license, long restrained, Heard in the peal their voice of liberty. Wine flowed like water,' flowers strewed the

And all the thoughtless crew, on pleasure bent, Grew drunk in draining bumpers to their lung. Afar, on wild Blackheath. the marshalled hosts Of Cromwell's loat Protectorate assembled, Gloomy and solemn 'mid the pomps and feasts That made the city ring with new found mirth And all the resurrected joys of old. The bitterness of all that might have been Sank deep in every veteran soldier's heart ; The pleasure of what might be filled the mmas Of all the gay-robed, shouting multitudes. As far adown the Thames from tower and fleet, The guns of welcome rolled their joyous thunder. But one in that great city, looking forth, Saw not the multitude, but only heard. With deep heart sorrow, all their Bhouts and And S tramp of joyous feet; like Comus's rout Loudly rejoicing in their hideous doom. Poor, blind, and sorrowing, he who lately stood By Cromwell's Bide and swayed the destinies Of England and of Europe, sadly now Turns from the world disgusted and oppressed. Lo ! even as he turns, the opening heavens, Spite of his blindness, to his mental eyes Reveal within the meads of paradise, - And broad and shady groves whose golden fruits Are stored records of the golden tnougnts Of worlds of mighty-minded seraph sages. The Stuart star has sunk in infamy, The pen, victorious o'er the rusting sword, Is lord protector or the whole world s cause, And Milton's sun, yet rising in the east, Shall gild with light caught from the throne of The woods and meadows of a fairer earth. Puketoi, August 6. ' -D. M. Wright.