[Page 32]
The Usurpers.
I.
1 USurping Passions held a long Contest
2 For the Supream Dominion of my Brest;
3 But whilst in mutural Broyls the Tyrants rag'd
4 Whoso'ver by the Battel Gain'd,
5 I still the certain Loss sustain'd;
6 For they nere-fail'd when-ever they Engag'd,
7 To Wast the Province where the War was wag'd.
II.
[Page 33]8 Whilst such wild Havock in my Brest was made,
9 Reason first came to tender me his Aid;
10 And sure with that puissant Prince Ally'd,
11 Had I but play'd the Man i'th' Fight.
12 My Passions had been put to Flight.
13 But I not only to Assist deny'd,
14 But Treach'rously fell off to th' Enemies side.
III.
15 Then from the Powers of Love Redress I crav'd,
16 But was by that Allyance worse Enslav'd;
17 For tho Loves Forces quickly did degrade
18 These proud Usurpers of my Breast,
19 Yet was I not hereby Redrest,
20 For Love himself prov'd false, when Victor made,
21 And seiz'd the Province which he came to Aid.
IV.
22 But heavier now the Bondage I sustain,
23 Then during my tumultuous Passions Reign.
24 'Twere now no small Presumption to impore
25 The Indulgent Fates to set me free
26 As in my Native Liberty.
27 No! So it please their kind Pow'rs to Restore
28 My former Tyrants, I demand no more.
Source edition
Tate, Nahum, c. 1652-1715. Poems by N. Tate. London: Printed by T.M. for Benj. Tooke ..., 1677, pp. 32-33. [15],133p. (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 2953].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Nahum Tate
- Advice to a Friend, designing to Publish his Poems. ()
- Amor Sepulchralis. ()
- The Amorist. ()
- The Amusement. ()
- The Banquet. ()
- The Beldam's Song. ()
- The Challenge. ()
- The Choice. ()
- The Confinement. ()
- The Counter-Turn. ()
- The Cure. A Dialogue. ()
- Dialogue. Alexis and Laura. ()
- Disappointed. ()
- The Disconsolate. ()
- The Discovery. ()
- Disswasion of an Aged Friend from Leaving his Retirement. ()
- The Dream. ()
- The Escape. ()
- The Gold-hater. ()
- The Gratefull Shepheard. ()
- The Hurricane. ()
- The Ignorant. ()
- The Inconstant. A Paraphrase on the XV. Epod of Horace. ()
- The Indispos'd. ()
- The Ingrates. ()
- The Installment. ()
- Laura's Walk. ()
- The Male Content. ()
- [Martial] Lib. 1. Epigr. CX. De Issa Catellâ Publij. ()
- [Martial] Lib. 1. Epigr. IX. ()
- [Martial] Lib. 1. Epigr. XIV. De Arriâ & Paeto. ()
- [Martial] Lib. 9. Epigr: VI. ()
- [Martial] Lib. XI. Epigr. XCV. Translated in Dialogue. ()
- [Martial] Lib. XI. Epigr. XLIII. ()
- The Match. ()
- Melancholy. ()
- The Mid-Night Thought. ()
- ODE. To my Ingenious Friend Mr. Flatman. ()
- Of the Ape and the Fox. A Paraphrase on one of the Centum Fabulae. ()
- Of the Few Adherers to Virtue. ()
- On a deform'd Old Baw'd designing to have her Picture drawn. ()
- On a Diseased Old Man, who Wept at thought of leaving the World. ()
- On a Grave Sir retiring to Write in Order to undeceive the World. ()
- On an Old Miser that Hoarded his Treasure in a Steel Chest, and bury'd it. ()
- On Sight of some Martyr's Sepulchres. ()
- On Snow fall'n in Autumn, and dissolv'd by the Sun. ()
- ON THE Present Corrupted State OF POETRY. ()
- The Parting. ()
- The Pennance. ()
- The Politicians. ()
- The Prospect. ()
- Recovering from a Fit of Sickness. ()
- The Request. ()
- The Requitall. ()
- The Restitution. ()
- The Round. ()
- The Search. ()
- Sliding on Skates in very hard Frost. ()
- Strephon's Complaint on quitting his Retirement. ()
- The Surprizal. ()
- The Tear. ()
- The three First Verses of the 46th Psalm Paraphras'd. ()
- To a Desponding Friend. ()
- TO Mr. THOMAS FLATMAN ON HIS Excellent POEMS. ()
- The Unconfin'd. ()
- The Vision, Written in a dangerous fit of Sickness. ()
- The Vow-Breaker. ()
- The Voyagers. ()