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TO THE MEMORY OF THE INCOMPARABLE ORINDA; PINDARIC ODE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A long adieu to all that's bright
Last Line: Since all that can be said of virtuous woman was her due.
Subject(s): Philips, Katherine ('orinda') (1631-64)


Stanza I.
A LONG adieu to all that's bright,
Noble, or brave in woman-kind;
To all the wonders of their wit,
And trophies of their mind:
The glowing heat of th' holy fire is gone:
To th' altar, whence 'twas kindled, flown;
There's nought on earth, but ashes left behind;
E'er since th' amazing sound was spread,
Orinda's dead;
Every soft and fragrant word,
All that language could afford;
Every high and lofty thing
That's wont to set the soul on wing,
No longer with this worthless world would stay.
Thus, when the death of the great Pan was told,
Along the shore the dismal tidings roll'd;
The lesser Gods their fanes forsook,
Confounded with the mighty stroke,
They could not overlive that fatal day,
But sigh'd and groan'd their gasping Oracles away.

II.

How rigid are the laws of Fate
And how severe that black decree!
No sublunary thing is free,
But all must enter th'adamantine gate:
Sooner or later must we come
To Nature's dark retiring room:
And yet 'tis pity, is it not?
The learned, as the fool should die,
One, full as low, as t'other lie,
Together blended in the general lot!
Distinguish'd only from the common crowd
By an hing'd coffin or an holland shroud,
Though Fame and Honour speak them ne'er so loud.
Alas, Orinda! even thou,
Whose happy verse made others live,
And certain immortality could give;
Blasted are all thy blooming glories now,
The laurel withers o'er thy brow:
Methinks it should disturb thee to conceive
That when poor I this artless breath resign,
My dust should have as much of Poetry as thine!

III.

Too soon we languish with desire
Of what we never could enough admire.
On th' billows of this world sometimes we rise
So dangerously high,
We are to Heaven too nigh:
When all in rage
(Grown hoary with one minute's age)
The very self-same fickle wave,
Which the entrancing prospect gave,
Swoln to a mountain, sinks into a grave.
Too happy mortals, if the Powers above
As merciful would be,
And easy to preserve the thing we love,
As in the giving they are free!
But they too oft delude our wearied eyes,
They fix a flaming sword 'twixt us and Paradise!
A weeping evening blurs a smiling day,
Yet why should heads of gold have feet of clay?
Why should the man that wav'd th' Almighty wand,
That led the murmuring crowd
By pillar and by cloud,
Shivering atop of aery Pisgah stand
Only to see, but never, never tread the Promis'd Land?

IV.

Throw your swords and gauntlets by,
You daring Sons of War!
You cannot purchase ere you die
One honourable scar,
Since that fair hand that gilded all your bays;
That in heroic numbers wrote your praise,
That you might safely sleep in Honour's bed,
Itself, alas! is wither'd, cold, and dead:
Cold and dead are all those charms
That burnish'd your victorious arms;
Those useless things hereafter must
Blush first in blood, and then in rust:
No oil but that of her smooth words can serve
Weapon and warrior to preserve.
Expect no more from this dull age
But folly or poetic rage,
Short-liv'd nothings of the stage,
Vented to-day, and cried to-morrow down;
With her the soul of Poesie is gone,
Gone, while our expectations flew
As high a pitch as she has done,
Exhal'd to Heaven like early dew,
Betimes the little shining drops are flown,
Ere th' drowsy world perceiv'd that manna was come down.

V.

You of the sex that would be fair,
Exceeding lovely, hither come,
Would you be pure as Angels are,
Come dress you by Orinda's tomb,
And leave your flattering glass at home.
Within that marble mirror see,
How one day such as she
You must, and yet alas! can never be!
Think on the heights of that vast soul,
And then admire, and then condole.
Think on the wonders of her generous pen,
'Twas she made Pompey truly great;
Neither the purchase of his sweat
Nor yet Cornelia's kindness made him live again:
With envy think, when to the grave you go,
How very little must be said of you,
Since all that can be said of virtuous woman was her due.





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