WHAT haste, fond Jock! Nay thou shalt longer stay, Bycause thou thirstest thus to snatch The first buzz of the News, & catch Thou knowst not what: The Story may Be sad, & punish greedy thee; What harm then in deferring Miserie! 2 Stay but a while, & thou the News shalt see Come, uninvited, to thy door, And honester that 'twas before: That Paint & lying Braverie Which makes her young wilde face so gay, Will by truth-cleering Time be washt away. 3 Fear not Delay; the News, though tardy, yet Can be her self to Thee, one day, Or twenty hence: That which doth slay Her slight life, is not Absence, but Presence alone: the News is new When first she comes (though then she dyes) in view. 4 But hark, my Heart, the happiest News to thee Will be to finde it truely in Thy self: Is that old Man of Sin Banishd & gone, & canst thou see New holy youth bud in thy breast? This is the only News can make thee blest. 5 If after other News thou lingerest still, Look out, & see where thou canst spy Devotion, Meeknes, Loyalty, Peace, Justice, & sinceer good-will: Judge truly, & thou canst not chuse But grant these old things are the greatest News. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE THIRD DAY: SCANDERBERG by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW IDYLLS OF THE KING: GARETH AND LYNETTE by ALFRED TENNYSON BIVOUAC ON A MOUNTAIN SIDE by WALT WHITMAN WHEN I HEARD AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY by WALT WHITMAN AT PORT ROYAL by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER CHRISTMAS EPITHALAMIUM by WILLIAM HERVEY ALLEN JR. |