Upon nothing a poem / by a person of honour. Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 1647-1680. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A57503 of text R33547 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing R1761). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 4 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2018 A57503 Wing R1761 ESTC R33547 13523053 ocm 13523053 99922 2240947492

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Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A57503) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 99922) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1556:6) Upon nothing a poem / by a person of honour. Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 1647-1680. 1 broadside. s.n., [London : 1689?] Reproduction of original in the Harvard University. eng eebo Upon nothing. A poem. By a person of honour. Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 1679 1 508 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2002-04 Assigned for keying and markup 2002-05 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-06 Sampled and proofread 2002-06 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion
Upon Nothing . A POEM . By a Person of Honour . NOthing , thou Elder-Brother , Eve to shade , Thou had'st a Being e're the World was made , Well fixt alone , of ending not afraid . E're Time and Place were , Time and Place were not , When primitive Nothing , Something strait begot ; Then all proceeded from the great united What! Something , the General Attribute of all , Sever'd from Thee its sole Original , Into thy boundless Self , must undistinguisht fall . Yet Something , did thy Nothing Power command , And from thy Fruitful Emptinesses Hand , Snatch Men , Beasts , Birds , Fire , Water , Air and Land . Matter , the wicked'st Of-spring of thy Race , By Form assisted , flew from thy Embrace , And Rebel Light obscur'd thy Rev'rend dusky Face . With Form and Matter , Time and Place did joyn ; Body , thy Foe , with these did Leagues combine , To spoyl thy Peaceful Reign , and ruin all thy Line . But Turn-Coat Time , assists the Foe in vain ; And bribed by Thee , destroys their short-lived Reign , And to thy hungry Womb , drives back the Slaves again . Thy Mysteries are hid from Laick Eyes , And the Divine alone by warrant pries Into thy Bosom , where thy Truth in private lies . Yet this of thee , the Wise may truly say , Thou from the Virtuous , nothing takes away , And to be part of thee , the Wicked wisely Pray . Great Negative ! how vainly would the Wise Enquire , Design , Distinguish , Teach , Devise , Did'st not thou stand to point their Blind Philosophies . Is , or is not , the Two great Ends of Fate , Of True or False , the Subject of debate , That perfects or destroys designs of State . When they have wrackt the Politicians Breast , Within thy Bosom most securely Rest , Reduc'd to Thee are least , tho safe and best . But Nothing , why doth Somthing still permit , That Sacred Monarchs should at Council sit With Persons thought , at best , for Nothing fit ? Whilst weighty Somthing , modestly abstains From Princes Courts , & from the States-mans brains ; And Nothing there like stately Nothing Reigns . Nothing , that dwells with Fools , in grave disguise , For whom they Rev'rend Forms & Shapes devise , Lawn Sleeves , and Furrs , and Gowns , when they look Wise. French Truth , Dutch Prowess , British Policy , Hybernian Learning , Scotch Civility , Spaniards Dispatch , Danes Wit are seen in Thee The Great Mans gratitude to his best Friend , Court ' promises , Whores vows , tow'rds thee , I bend Flow Swift , Fly into Thee , and severs in the End . FINIS .