English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 200. Content and Resolute |
| | | William Drummond (1585–1649) |
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| AS when it happeneth that some lovely town | |
| Unto a barbarous besieger falls, | |
| Who there by sword and flame himself installs, | |
| And, cruel, it in tears and blood doth drown; | |
| Her beauty spoiled, her citizens made thralls, | 5 |
| His spite yet so can not her all throw down | |
| But that some statue, arch, fane of renown | |
| Yet lurks unmaimed within her weeping walls: | |
| So, after all the spoil, disgrace, and wrack, | |
| That time, the world, and death, could bring combined, | 10 |
| Amidst that mass of ruins they did make, | |
| Safe and all scarless yet remains my mind. | |
| From this so high transcending rapture springs, | |
| That I, all else defaced, not envy kings. | |
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