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DEO OPT. MAX, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis    
First Line: O thou who all-things hast of nothing made




O Thou, who all things hast of nothing made,
Whose hand the radiant firmament displayed:-
With such an undiscernèd swiftness hurled
About the steadfast center of the world;
Against whose rapid course the restless sun
And wandering flames in varied motions run
(Which heat, light, life infuse; time, night, and day
Distinguish; in our human bodies sway),


That hung'st the solid earth in fleeting air:-
Veined with clear springs, which ambient seas repair;
In clouds the mountains wrap their hoary heads;
Luxurious valleys clothed with flowery meads;
Her trees yield fruit and shade; with liberal breasts
All creatures she (their common mother) feasts,


Then man (Thy image) mad'st:-in dignity,
In knowledge, and in beauty, like to Thee;
Placed in a heaven on earth; without his toil,
The ever-flourishing and fruitful soil
Unpurchased food produced; all creatures were
His subjects, serving more for love than fear;
He knew no lord but Thee; but when he fell
From his obedience, all at once rebel,
And in his ruin exercise their might;
Concurring elements against him fight;
Troops of unknown diseases, sorrow, age,
And death, assail him with successive rage;
Hell let forth all her furies, none so great
As man to man; ambition, pride, deceit,
Wrong armed with power, lust, rapine, slaughter reigned;
And flattered vice the name of virtue gained;
Then hills beneath the swelling waters stood;
And all the globe of earth was but one flood,
Yet could not cleanse their guilt; the following race
Worse than their fathers, and their sons more base
(Their god-like beauty lost; sin's wretched thrall;
No spark of their divine original
Left unextinguished; all envelopèd
With darkness; in their bold transgressions dead),


When Thou didst from the east a light display:-
Which rendered to the world a clearer day;
Whose precepts from hell's jaws our steps withdraw,
And whose example was a living law;
Who purged us with His blood, the way prepared
To heaven, and those long-chained-up doors unbarred,


How infinite Thy mercy!-which exceeds
The world Thou mad'st, as well as our misdeeds;
Which greater reverence than Thy justice wins,
And still augments Thy honor by our sins.


O who hath tasted of Thy clemency
In greater measure or more oft than I!
My grateful verse Thy goodness shall display,
O Thou, who went'st along in all my way:-
To where the morning with perfumèd wings
From the high mountains of Panchaea springs;
To that new-found-out world, where sober night
Takes from the antipodes her silent flight;
To those dark seas, where horrid winter reigns,
And binds the stubborn floods in icy chains;
To Libyan wastes, whose thirst no showers assuage,
And where swollen Nilus cools the lion's rage.


Thy wonders in the deep have I beheld,
Yet all by those on Judah's hills excelled:-
There, where the virgin's son His doctrine taught,
His miracles and our redemption wrought;
Where I, by Thee inspired, His praises sung,
And on His sepulcher my offering hung.


Which way so e'er I turn my face or feet,
I see Thy glory, and Thy mercy meet:-
Met on the Thracian shores, when in the strife
Of frantic Simoans Thou preserv'dst my life;
So when Arabian thieves belayed us round,
And when by all abandoned, Thee I found;
That false Sidonian wolf (whose craft put on
A sheep-soft fleece; and me, Bellerophon,
To ruin by his cruel letter sent)
Thou didst by Thy protecting hand prevent;
Thou sav'dst me from the bloody massacres
Of faithless Indians, from their treacherous wars,
From raging fevers, from the sultry breath
Of tainted air which cloyed the jaws of death;
Preserved from swallowing seas, when towering waves
Mixed with the clouds and opened their deep graves;
From barbarous pirates ransomed; by those taught,
Successfully with Salian Moors we fought;
Then brought'st me home in safety, that this earth
Might bury me, which fed me from my birth.


Blessed with a healthful age, a quiet mind;
Content with little, to this work designed,
Which I, at length, have finished by Thy aid,
And now my vows have at Thy altar paid






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