Hymn to Light. By Cowley (1618-1667). First-born of Chaos, who so fair didst come, From the old Negro’s darksome womb ! Which, when it saw the lovely child, The melancholy mass put on kind looks, and smil’d. Thou tide of glory, which no rest dost know, But ever ebb and ever flow ! Thou golden shower of a true Jove ! Who does in thee descend, and heav’n to earth make love ! Hail, active Nature’s watchful life and health ! Her joy, her ornament, and wealth ! Hail to thy husband, Heat, and thee ! Thou the world’s beauteous bride, the lusty bridegroom he ! Say, from what golden quivers of the sky Do all thy winged arrows fly ? Swiftness and power by birth are thine : From thy great sire they came, thy sire the Word Divine. ’Tis, I believe, this archery to show, That so much cost in colours thou, And skill in painting dost bestow Upon thy ancient arms, the gaudy heavenly bow. Swift as light thoughts their empty career run, Thy race is finish’d when begun ; Let a post-angel start with thee, And thou the goal of earth shall reach as soon as he. Thou in the moon’s bright chariot, proud and gay, Dost thy bright wood of stars survey ; And all the year dost with thee bring A thousand flowery lights, thine own nocturnal spring. Thou, Scythian-like, dost round thy lands above Thy sun’s gilt tent for ever move, And still as thou in pomp dost go, The shining pageants of the world attend thy show. Nor midst all these triumphs dost thou scorn The humble glow-worms to adorn, And with those living spangles gild (O greatness without pride !) the bushes of the field. Night, and her ugly subject, thou dost fright, And Sleep, the lazy owl of night ; Asham’d and fearful to appear, They screen their horrid shapes, with the black hemisphere. With them there hastes, and wildly takes th’ alarm, Of painted dreams a busy swarm ; At the first opening of thine eye, The various clusters break, the antic atoms fly. The guilty serpents, and obscener beasts, Creep conscious to their secret rests : Nature to thee does reverence pay, Ill omens and ill sights remove out of thy way. At thy appearance, Grief itself is said To shake his wings, and rouse his head ; And cloudy Care has often took A gentle beamy smile, reflected from thy look. At thy appearance, Fear itself grows bold ; Thy sunshine melts away his cold : Encourag’d at the sight of thee, To the cheek colour comes, and firmness to the knee. When, goddess, thou lift’st up thy waken’d head, Out of the Morning’s purple bed, The choir of birds about thee play, And all the joyful world salutes the rising day. The ghosts, and monster sprites, that did presume A body’s priv’lege to assume, Vanish again invisibly, And bodies gain anew their visibility. All the world’s bravery, that delights our eyes, Is but thy several liveries ; Thou the rich dye on them bestow’st, Thy nimble pencil paints this landscape as thou go’st. A crimson garment is the rose thou wear’st ; A crown of studded gold thou bear’st ; The virgin lilies, in their white, Are clad but with the lawn of almost naked light. The violet, Spring’s little infant, stands Girt in thy purple swaddling-bands ; On the fair tulip thou dost doat, Thou cloth’st it in a gay and parti-colour’d coat. With flame condens’d, thou dost the jewel fix, And solid colours in it mix ; Flora herself envies to see Flowers fairer than her own, and durable as she. Ah, goddess ! would thou could’st thy hand withhold, And be less liberal to gold ; Didst thou less value to it give, Of how much care, alas! might’st thou poor man relieve ! To me the sun is more delightful far, And all fair days much fairer are : But few, ah ! wondrous few there be, Who do not gold prefer, O goddess ! ev’n to thee. Through the soft ways of heav’n, and air, and sea, Which open all their pores to thee, Like a clear river dost thou glide, And with thy living stream through the close channels slide. But where firm bodies thy free course oppose, Gently thy source the land o’erflows ; Takes their possession, and does make, Of colours mingled, light, a thick and standing lake. But the vast ocean of unbounded day In th’ empyrean heav’n does stay ; Thy rivers, lakes, and springs, below, From thence took first their rise, thither at last must flow.