7 Both they who sing and they who dance

With sacred songs are there;
In thee fresh brooks and soft streams glance,

And all my fountains clear.

PSALM LXXXVIII.

I LORD GOD, that dost me save and keep,

All day to Thee I cry,
And all night long before Thee weep,

Before Thee prostrate lie.

2 Into Thy presence let my prayer,

With sighs devout, ascend;
And to my cries, that ceaseless are,

Thine ear with favour bend.

IO

3 For, cloyed with woes and trouble store,

Surcharged my soul doth lie; My life, at death's uncheerful door,

Unto the grave draws nigh.

4 Reckoned I am with them that pass

Down to the dismal pit;
I am a man but weak, alas !

And for that name unfit,

5 From life discharged and parted quite

Among the dead to sleep,
And like the slain in bloody fight

That in the grave lie deep;

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Whom Thou rememberest no more,

Dost never more regard :
Them, from Thy hand delivered o'er,

Death's hideous house hath barred.

/

6 Thou in the lowest pit profound,

Hast set me all forlorn,
Where thickest darkness hovers round,

In horrid deeps to mourn.

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7 Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves,

Full sore doth press on me;
Thou break'st upon me all thy waves,

And all Thy waves break me.
8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange,

And mak'st me odious,
Me to them odious, for they change,

And I here pent up thus.
9 Through sorrow and affliction great

Mire eye grows dim and dead; Lord, all the day I Thee entreat,

My hands to Thee I spread.

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10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?

Shall the deceased arise
And praise Thee from their loathsome bed

With pale and hollow eyes?

11 Shall they Thy loving-kindness tell

On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they who in perdition dwell

Thy faithfulness unfold?

12 In darkness can Thy mighty hand

Or wondrous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion ?

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13 But I to Thee, O Lord, do cry

Ere yet my life be spent;
And up to Thee my prayer doth hie

Each morn, and Thee prevent.

14 Why wilt Thou, Lord, my soul forsake

And hide Thy face from me,
15 That am already bruised, and shake

With terror sent from Thee;

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Bruised and afflicted, and so low

As ready to expire,
While I Thy terrors undergo,

Astonished with Thine ire?

16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow;

Thy threatenings cut me through: 17 All day they round about me go;

Like waves they me pursue.

18 Lover and friend Thou hast removed,

And severed from me far:
They fly me now whom I have loved,

And as in darkness are.

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A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.

This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest productions. He was only

fifteen years old when he translated them.
WHEN the blessed seed of Terah's faithful son
After long toil their liberty had won,
And passed from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,

IO

Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurlèd head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath received the foil.
The high huge-bellied mountains skip, like rams
Amongst their ewes, the little hills like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? and why skipped the mountains ?
Why turned Jordan toward his crystal fountains ?
Shake, earth and at the presence be aghast

!
Of Him that ever was and aye shall last,
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.

The floods stood still, like walls of glass,
While the Hebrew bands did pass ;

For His, etc.

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But full soon they did devour
The tawny king with all his power ;

For His, etc.

His chosen people He did bless
In the wasteful wilderness;

For His, etc.

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