[Page 71]
The Disconsolate.
1 MY lab'ring Soul no longer can sustain,
2 But sinks beneath th'encreasing Pain;
3 I Wish, Contrive, Attempt, and Rage in Vain!
4 Down by these falling Springs I'll Lay
5 My weary Limbs, and Sigh my troubled Soul Away!
6 To these lone Fields my Griefs I will impart,
7 Oh my distracted Head! Oh my afflicted Heart!
8 Put stay, why shou'd I mournfully recite
9 My Grievances, to Fright
10 The feather'd Poets of these Streams?
[Page 72]11 To interrupt their Mirth and Peace,
12 Whilst philomel her querulous Song shall cease,
13 And from my sorrows, learn more Tragick Theams!
14 No! No! I will conceal my weighty Ills,
15 Seal up my Lips, nor loose them ev'n to Pray,
16 But all my Plaints in Mental Pray'rs convey,
17 That shall to Heav'n as silent rise as Dew from thence Distills.
II.
18 Dream I? or is't a real Prodigy?
19 For I descry
20 A Rent in that unclouded Skye;
21 The Azure Curtains are drawn wide
22 And to my View disclose
23 Th' Elysian Lands where happy Spirits Reside!
24 See where the Spring of Pleasure flows,
25 On whose fair Banks the Blest take soft Repose.
26 Exempt from Sense or thought of Misery,
27 They Sing, and Smile, and Rove,
[Page 73]28 And Feast on Joys in every Grove;
29 Their Paradise has no Forbidden Tree!
30 Curst that I am to View this glorious Scene
31 With a vast Gulf of Air Between!
32 So from a Rock the Ship-wreckt Marriner
33 Surveys the distant Shore with watry Eyes,
34 Reflects on the full Meals and Pastimes there,
35 But having fram'd his fancy'd Theatre
36 Of Sports and rich Varieties,
37 Sits down Disconsolate, and Starving Dyes.
Source edition
Tate, Nahum, c. 1652-1715. Poems by N. Tate. London: Printed by T.M. for Benj. Tooke ..., 1677, pp. 71-73. [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 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 Usurpers. ()
- The Vision, Written in a dangerous fit of Sickness. ()
- The Vow-Breaker. ()
- The Voyagers. ()