146 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
Faithful Only He
So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he ;
Among innumerable false unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Paradise Lost
Wordsworth's Perfect Lady
SHE was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition,, sent
To be a moment's ornament.
I saw her upon nearer view,
A Spirit, yet a Woman too I
A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food.
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine ;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between life and death ;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command ;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light.
npHou, while thy babes around thee cling,
1 Shalt show us how divine a thing
A Woman may be made.
Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die,
Nor leave thee, when grey hairs are nigh,
A melancholy slave;
But an old age serene and bright,
And lovely as a Lapland night.
Shall lead thee to thy grave.
Passages from two poems
Woe to that Nation
WOE to the nation whose military power is irresistible.
Wordsworth