1Sad, sick, and lame, as in my bed I lay,
2Lest pain and passion
should bear all the sway
, 3My thoughts being free, I bid them take their flight
4Above the gloomy shades of death and night.
5They, overjoyed with such a large commission,
6Flew instantly, without all intermission,
7Up to that sphere where night’s pale queen
doth run 8Round the circumference of the illustrious
sun. 9Her globious
body spacious was, and bright; 10That half alone that from Sol’s
beams had light; 11The other was immured
in shades of night. 12Nor did she seem to me as poets feign
: 13Guiding her chariot with a silver rein,
14Attired like some fair nymph
or virgin queen, 15With naked neck and arms and robes of green.
16Lovesick Endymion
oft hath thus her seen; 17But as my thoughts about her orb was hurled,
18I did perceive she was another world.
19Thus being in my fancy raised so far,
20This world appeared to me another star;
21And as the moon a shadow casts and light,
22So is our Earth the empress of their night.
23Next, Venus, usher to the night and day
, 24Her full-faced
beauty to me did display; 25Sometimes she wanéd, then again increase
, 26Which in our humors
cause or
war or peace. 27My fancy next to Mercury would run,
28But craftily he popped behind the sun.
29A wonder ’tis, the medium being so bright,
30His splendency
should be obscured by light. 31Nor could I Sol’s refulgent
orb descry
: 32His radiant beams dazzled my tender eye;
33And now my wonder is again renewed,
34That he, enlightening all, could not be viewed.
35Yet to my reason this appeared the best:
36That he the center was of all the rest
37The planets, all like bowls
still trundling round 38The vast circumference of his glorious mound;
39He, resting
, quickens
all with heat and light, 40And by the Earth’s motion makes our day or night.
41Next Jupiter, that mild auspicious star:
42I did perceive about his blazing car
43Four bright attendants
always hurried round; 44Next flagrant
Mars, where no such moons are found; 45Then Saturn (whose aspects so sads my soul)
46About whose orb two sickly Cynthias
roll; 47Then on the fixed stars
I would have gazed, 48But their vast brightness so my mind amazed
49That my affrighted fancy downward flew
50Just as the Hours Aurora’s curtain drew
, 51At which the ugly wife of Acheron
52Bid drive, and slashed her drowsy monsters on;
53With her there went her firstborn brat, old Error,
54And fierce Eumenides
, poor mortals’ terror, 55Who with their snakes, and whips, and brands, were hurled
56To strike amazement
to the lower world; 57Being scared themselves at the approach of light,
58To our antipodes
they took their flight. 59Sin’s curséd offspring with their dam
did trace
, 60That most prodigious, incestuous race
: 61Pale, ghastly, shuddering Horror, lost Despair,
62And sobbing Sorrow, tearing off her hair:
63These of her
sable womb were born and bred, 64And from the light with her now frighted fled;
65And then my maids my window curtains drew,
66And, as my pain, so comforts did renew.
67Unto the God of truth, light, life, and love,
68I’ll such lays
here begin shall end above
.