Complaint of Thames, 1647 | Elemental Edition

Late in an evening as I walked alone,
I heard the Thames most sadly make her moan.
As she came weeping from her western spring,
She thus bewailed the learnéd shepherd’s king2
:
“Amintas3
, sad Amintas, sits forlorn,
And his fair Chloris now’s become the scorn
Of Troynovant’s4
ingrate5
 licentious dames.
No marvel, then, if poor afflicted Thames
With salt, abortive6
 tears does wash this city,
As full of blood and lies as void of pity.
Perfidious7
 town, know thou the power of fate:
Thy long felicity shall find a date8
,
And I may live to see another turn9
,
When thy proud fabric10
 shall unpitied burn.
Then Heaven, just Heaven, withhold thy rain,
And I will leave my channel once again,
As when my holy Albion’s11
 blood was spilt;
Seeking12
 to wash away thy13
 horrid guilt
Is more impossible than ’tis to change
The skins of Negroes that in Afric range14
.
Then, when thou fryest in vengeful flames of fire,
Thy scorchéd genius15
 ready to expire—
Thy tongue and mouth sable16
 as salamander17
With speaking ’gainst thy king and queen such slander—
Then not a drop of my cool crystal have18
To cool thy sulfurous19
 tongue, or life to save;
But when I have of thee seen all my lust20
And all thy pride and glory turned to dust,
Then I, triumphant with my watery train,
Will make this city quagmires21
 once again.
But O, thy22
blood23
 and perjuries repent;
Then Heaven, I hope, in mercy will relent.
Thy king restore, call home his queen24
 again,
Or all thy prayer and fasting is in vain.
Hast thou forgot? Ay me—so have not I—
Those halcyon25
 days, the sweet tranquility
That we enjoyed under his happy reign,
Which heaven will once restore to us again,
Unless the dismal line of dissolution
(Which O, forbid) be drawn26
 upon this nation.
Oft have I born upon my silver breast27
His lovely Chloris, like Aurora28
 dressed
With youth and beauty, with her princely spouse.
Envied I was by Severn, Humber, Ouse29
;
The sacred Dee30
 said she no more would boast
Her showing conquest on the conquering coast31
,
Though Edgar’s32
 glory from her river springs,
When he, in triumph, by eight captive kings
Was rowed upon her famous crystal stream;
Those former honors showed now like a dream.
Nay, the Danube33
 said she would ne’er rehearse
Her being biggest in the universe.
Even Tagus34
 would not brag of golden sands,
But said she envied more my happy strands35
.
So said the Loire36
. In envy Po37
took on38
:
Though she were honored by a Phaeton39
,
And Egypt’s glory, Nilus40
, stately stream,
Said her felicities were but a dream,
When on her o’erflowing waves were seen
The Roman eagles and her black-eyed queen41
.
And silver Ganges42
 said the sacrifice
The Banians43
 brought with elevated eyes—
Though all their carcasses, by fire calcined44
,
Were in her purifying waves refined;
Though all their wealth and treasure in they hurled,
And she were Lady of the eastern world—
Yet all that glory she did count a toy,
Compared, she said, with happy Thames her joy45
.
Tiber46
 said of Horatius47
’s valor brave
She ne’er would speak, but I the praise should have.
Crystal Euphrates48
 never did envy
The glory of no other flood but I;
Though from a thousand founts her stream doth spring,
Yet did she never bear so good a king.
Through lofty Babylon49
 her river flows,
And earthly paradise she doth enclose50
,
Though brave Semiramis51
 enlarge her fame,
Yet doth she envy still the English Thame.
But now, alas, they envy me no more,
But with their tears my heavy loss deplore52
.
Oft have I born my sacred sovereign’s barge,
Being richly gilt, most proud of such a charge.
My waves would swell to see his princely face,
Each billow loath to give his fellow place.
Sometimes they would rise to kiss his royal hand,
And hardly would give back at my command,
Billow with billow strive, and ruffling roar,
Scorning the blow of either hand or oar;
But now, insulting, on my billows ride
The kingdom’s scourges and this city’s pride53
,
Which make my trembling stream lamenting roar,
And her sad loss with troubled breast deplore.
Come, kind Charybdis54
, come, O come and help’s55
;
Sweet lovely Scylla, bring thy barking whelps56
.
Then should they57
 need no monument nor tomb,
But Oceanus’s58
 dark and horrid womb
Should them involve59
. But wishes are in vain:
I will roar out my grief unto the main60
.
Now all the beauty that my waves adorn
Are snowy swans that sadly swim, forlorn;
Nor do they in the sun their feathers prune,
As they were wont61
, nor yet their voices tune.
But in despairs, hanging their head and wing,
This kingdom’s dirges62
 they, expiring, sing63
.
O, that it in my power were to refuse
To see this town like crystal Arethuse64
,
Below this curséd earth I would hide my head,
And run amongst the caverns of the dead,
Where my pure wave with Acheron65
 should mix
With Lethe, Phlegethon, Cocytus, Styx66
.
Then would Iwaft67
them68
 to the Stygian69
 shade,
Examples unto rebels to be made.
O my sad heart, these are but foolish dreams,
For they triumph upon my conquered streams.
Yet this I’ll do while sighs breathes up70
 my spring:
I’ll trickle tears for my afflicted king,
And look how far one drop of crystal Thames
Doth run; so far I’ll memorize their fames,
So shall my grief immortalize their71
 names.”
I, hearing these complaints, though time to sleep,
Sat sadly down, and with her ’gan to weep.

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