…
But ev’n as many (or more) quarrels cumber
Th’ old heathen schools about the heavens’ number.
One holds but one; making the world’s eyes shine
Through the thin-thickness of that chrystal line,
(As through the ocean’s clear and liquid flood
The slippery fishes up and down do scud).
Another, judging certain by his eye,
And, seeing sev’n bright lamps mov’d diversely,
Turn this and that way: and, on th’ other side,
That all the rest of the heav’ns’ twinkling pride
Keep all one course; ingeniously, he varies
The heav’ns’ rich building into eight round stories.
Others, amid the starriest orb, perceiving
A triple cadence, and withal conceiving
That but one natural course one body goes,
Count nine, some ten; not numb’ring yet (with those)
Th’ empyreal palace, where th’ eternal treasures
Of nectar flow, where everlasting pleasures
Are heaped-up, where an immortal May
In blissful beauties flourisheth for ay,
Where life still lives, where God his sises holds
Environ’d round with seraphins and souls
Bought with his precious blood, whose glorious flight
Erst mounted earth above the heavens bright.
Nor shall my faint and humble Muse presume
So high a song and subject to assume.
…
(Joshua Sylvester)
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Based on Topics: World Poems, Pleasure Poems, Immortality PoemsBased on Keywords: heaped-up, environ, diversely, seraphins, starriest, ingeniously, flourisheth