A Grammar of the English Tongue - ESL Teachers Board

A Grammar of the English Tongue 62Though in the utmost peak, A while we do remain, Amongst the mountainsbleak, Expos'd to sleet and rain, No sport our hours shall break, To exerciseour vein.What though bright Phoebus' beams Refresh the southern ground, Andthough the princely Thames With beauteous nymphs abound, And by oldCamber's streams Be many wonders found:Yet many rivers clear Here glide in silver swathes, And what of all mostdear, Buxton's delicious baths, Strong ale and noble chear, T' asswagebreem winters scathes.In places far or near, Or famous, or obscure, Where wholsom is the air, Orwhere the most impure, All times, and every where, The muse is still in ure.Drayton.Of eight, which is the usual measure for short poems,And may at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, The hairygown, and mossy cell, Where I may sit, and nightly spell Of ev'ry star thesky doth shew, And ev'ry herb that sips the dew. Milton.Of ten, which is the common measure of heroick and tragick poetry,Full in the midst of this created space, Betwixt heav'n, earth, and skies,there stands a place Confining on all three; with triple bound; Whence allthings, though remote, are view'd around, And thither bring their undulatingsound. The palace of loud Fame, her seat of pow'r, Plac'd on the summit ofa lofty tow'r; A thousand winding entries long and wide Receive of freshreports a flowing tide. A thousand crannies in the walls are made; Nor gatenor bars exclude the busy trade. Tis built of brass, the better to diffuse Thespreading sounds, and multiply the news; Where echoes in repeated echoesplay: A mart for ever full; and open night and day. Nor silence is within,nor voice express, But a deaf noise of sounds that never cease; Confus'dand chiding, like the hollow roar Of tides, receding from th' insulted shore;Or like the broken thunder heard from far, When Jove to distance drives the