IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 191 



Of knowledge was repos'd, as all lament 

 (Or should) this generall cause of discontent. 



And I rejoyce I am not so severe, 

 But (as I write a line) to weep a teare 

 For his decease ; such sad extremities 

 May make such men as I write Elegies. 



And wonder not ; for, when a generall losse 

 Falls on a nation, and they slight the crosse, 

 God hath rais'd Prophets to awaken them 

 From stupifaction ; witnesse my milde pen, 

 Not us'd to upbraid the world, though now it 



must 

 Freely and boldly, for the cause is just. 



Dull age, Oh I would spare thee, but th' art 

 worse, 

 Thou art not onely dull, but hast a curse 

 Of black ingratitude ; if not, could'st thou 

 Part with miraculous Donne, and make no vow 

 For thee, and thine, successively to pay 

 A sad remembrance to his dying day ? 



Did his youth scatter Poetry, wherein 

 Was all Philosophy ? was every sinne, 

 Character'd in his Satyrs ? Made so foule 

 That some have fear'd their shapes, and kept their 



soule 

 Safer by reading verse ? Did he give dayes 

 Past marble monuments, to those, whose praise 

 He would perpetuate ? Did he (I feare 

 The dull will doubt) : these at his twentieth year ? 



