136946946"To fill with wormholes stately monuments,

947947To feed oblivion with decay of things,

948948To blot old books and alter their contents,

949949To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings,

950950To dry the old oak's sap and cherish springs,

951951To spoil antiquities of hammered steel,

952952And turn the giddy round of Fortune's wheel;"

137953953"To show the beldame daughters of her daughter,

954954To make the child a man, the man a child,

955955To slay the tiger that doth live by slaughter,

956956To tame the unicorn and lion wild,

957957To mock the subtle in themselves beguiled,

958958To cheer the plowman with increaseful crops,

959959And waste huge stones with little water drops."

138960960"Why work'st thou mischief in thy pilgrimage,

961961Unless thou couldst return to make amends?

962962One poor retiring minute in an age

963963Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends,

964964Lending him wit that to bad debtors lends.

965965O, this dread night, wouldst thou one hour come back,

966966I could prevent this storm and shun thy wrack."

139967967"Thou ceaseless lackey to eternity,

968968With some mischance cross Tarquin in his flight.

969969Devise extremes beyond extremity

970970To make him curse this cursèd crimeful night.

971971Let ghastly shadows his lewd eyes affright,

972972And the dire thought of his committed evil

973973Shape every bush a hideous shapeless devil."

140974974"Disturb his hours of rest with restless trances;

975975Afflict him in his bed with bedrid groans;

976976Let there bechance him pitiful mischances

977977To make him moan, but pity not his moans.

978978Stone him with hardened hearts harder than stones,

979979And let mild women to him loose their mildness,

980980Wilder to him than tigers in their wildness."