[Page 132]
The Gratefull Shepheard.
1 WHilst by his grazing Flock a gentle Swain,
2 His Vacant Hours to entertain,
3 Perus'd a Volumn whose each Tragick Page
4 Discours'd of some Intrigue of State,
5 Of Rebell-Insolence and Rage,
6 And some unhappy Monarch's Fate:
7 The Youth into these passionate sounds brake forth
8 What Virtue of my Ancestours
9 So much Oblig'd you ye indulgent Pow'rs,
10 That in these Silent shades you gave me Birth?
11 You might have made me Fortune's Sport,
12 Doom'd me to some Corrupted Court,
[Page 133]13 Where I this rurall Bliss had never known;
14 My Cottage might have been a Throne,
15 My Crook a Scepter, and my Wreath a Grown:
16 Some Tyrant-Prince I might have been,
17 (By your Indulgence now a peacefull Swain)
18 My Chloris some proud Cruel Queen,
19 The tendrest Nymph of the Arcadian Plain.
20 When for these Blessings I forget t' invoke
21 Your Powers, neglect to make your Altars smoak;
22 Then Ravisht let me be
23 From this Secure Retreat,
24 And plac't aloft on Grandieur's Seat,
25 An open Mark to the sure Darts of envious Destinie.
Source edition
Tate, Nahum, c. 1652-1715. Poems by N. Tate. London: Printed by T.M. for Benj. Tooke ..., 1677, pp. 132-133. [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 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. ()