Page:Poems - Southey (1799) volume 2.djvu/37

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Observing where the Fates their several tasksPlied ceaseless. "Mark how short the longest webAllowed to man! he cried; observe how soon,Twin'd round yon never-resting wheel, they changeTheir snowy hue, darkening thro' many a shade,Till Atropos relentless shuts the sheers!"
Too true he spake, for of the countless threads,Drawn from the heap, as white as unsunn'd snow,Or as the lovely lilly of the vale,Was never one beyond the little spanOf infancy untainted: few there wereBut lightly tinged; more of deep crimson hue,Or deeper sable[1] died. Two Genii stood,Still as the web of Being was drawn forth,
  1. ↑ These lines strongly resemble a passage in the Pharonnida of William Chamberlayne, a Poet who has told an interesting story in uncouth rhymes, and mingled sublimity of thought and beauty of expression, with the quaintest conceits, and most awkward inversions.
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