The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes

The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes

John Dryden

5.0
Comment(s)
View
18
Chapters

The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by John Dryden

The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol I With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes Chapter 1 No.1

Thus long my grief has kept me dumb:

Sure there's a lethargy in mighty woe,

Tears stand congeal'd, and cannot flow;

And the sad soul retires into her inmost room:

Tears, for a stroke foreseen, afford relief;

But, unprovided for a sudden blow,

Like Niobe we marble grow;

And petrify with grief.

Our British heaven was all serene,

No threatening cloud was nigh,

Not the least wrinkle to deform the sky;

We lived as unconcern'd and happily

As the first age in Nature's golden scene;

Supine amidst our flowing store,

We slept securely, and we dreamt of more:

When suddenly the thunder-clap was heard,

It took us unprepared and out of guard,

Already lost before we fear'd.

The amazing news of Charles at once were spread,

At once the general voice declared,

"Our gracious prince was dead."

No sickness known before, no slow disease,

To soften grief by just degrees:

But like a hurricane on Indian seas,

The tempest rose;

An unexpected burst of woes;

With scarce a breathing space betwixt-

This now becalm'd, and perishing the next.

As if great Atlas from his height

Should sink beneath his heavenly weight,

And with a mighty flaw, the flaming wall

(At once it shall),

Should gape immense, and rushing down, o'erwhelm this nether ball;

So swift and so surprising was our fear:

Our Atlas fell indeed, but Hercules was near.

Continue Reading

Other books by John Dryden

More

You'll also like

Reborn Heiress: The Wolf's Vengeance Deal

Reborn Heiress: The Wolf's Vengeance Deal

Sibeal Sallese
5.0

I lay paralyzed on stiff white sheets, a prisoner in my own skin, listening to the rain lash against the window like nails on a coffin. My father, Elmore Franco, didn't even look at my face as he checked his clipboard. He just listened to the steady, monotonous beep of the heart monitor-the only thing proving I was still alive. Without a hint of remorse, he pulled a pen from his pocket and signed the Do Not Resuscitate order. My stepmother, Ophelia, stepped out from behind him, wearing my favorite pearl necklace and smelling of cloying perfume. She leaned close to my ear to whisper the truth that turned my blood to ice. "It was the tea, darling. Just like your mother. A slow, tasteless poison." She chuckled as she revealed that my fiancé, Bryce, had a two-year-old son with my sister, Daniela. My inheritance had been funding their secret life for years, and now that the money was secure, I was an inconvenience they were finally scrubbing away. As my father yanked the power cord from the wall, the beeping died, and the darkness swallowed me whole. I was being murdered by my own flesh and blood, used as a bank account until I was no longer needed. I died in that sterile room, drowning in the realization that every person I ever loved was a monster who had been waiting for me to take my last breath. Then, I gasped. I woke up in a luxury hotel suite surrounded by silk sheets, five years in the past-the very morning of my wedding. Next to me lay Basile Delgado, the "Wolf of Wall Street" and my family's most dangerous enemy. In my first life, I ran from this room in a panic and lost everything. This time, I looked at the man who would eventually destroy my father's empire and decided to join him. "I'm not leaving, Basile. Marry me. Right now. Today."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book