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1Old
Aeschylus1
, being told that he should die2By the descent of something from on high,
3Into the field he went and sat him down.
4The sun shone bright upon his
glist’ring crown2
,5
For he to Erycine had sacrificed3
;6
Pity4
a poet thus was stigmatized5
.7A tow’ring eagle let her prey fall down
8In hope to break
th’escallop6
on his crown.9She had her wish; it broke the fatal shell,
10And struck the poet’s rhyming soul to Hell.
11Then let none curiously pry in their fate,
12For none can lengthen or make short their date.
13For surely none their fortune can prevent,
14Unless a messenger from Heaven be sent
15With a reprieve; so
Hezekiah’s tears7
16A pardon did obtain for fifteen years.
17This
Jezebel8
found true that fatal hour18When dogs her curséd carcass did devour.
19Nor could
Domitian9
cross his prophet’s fate20Or add a minute to his own life’s date.
21
Though Caesar did the fatal Ides know10
,22At twenty and three wounds his blood did flow.
23So Agrippina was her fate foretold,
24
Yet her dissection Nero did behold11
.25Then let me never know my destiny,
26But every day so live that when I die
27I may with comfort lay these ruins down
28In
dust12
; ’tis softer far than finest down13
.29Nor is that pillow stuffed with cares or fears,
30Nor shall I wake as now to sighs and tears.
31Yet O, my God, this comfort let me have:
32Let me not here anticipate my grave;
33Yet
if I must alive thus buried be14
,34Let me yet live, my gracious God, to Thee.
35Then so assist my soul in her sad story,
36That though I fall, yet I may rise to glory.