Katherine Philips. On the Fair Weather just at the Coronation.

Katherine Philips

On the Fair Weather just at
the Coronation, it having
rained immediately before
and after

So clear a season, and so snatch'd from storms,
Shows Heav'n delights to see what man performs.
Well knew the Sun, if such a day were dim,
It would have been an injury to him:
For then a cloud had from his eye conceal'd
The noblest sight that ever he beheld.
He therefore check'd th' invading rains we fear'd,
And in a bright Parenthesis appear'd.
So that we knew not which look'd most content,
The King, the people, or the firmament.
But the solemnity once fully past,
The storm return'd with an impetuous haste
And Heav'n and Earth each other to out-do,
Vied both in cannons and in fire-works too.
So Israel past through the divided flood,
While in obedient heaps the Ocean stood:
But the same sea (the Hebrews once on shore)
Return'd in torrents where it was before.

Source:
Philips, Katherine. Poems, 1678.
in Minor Poets of the Caroline Period.
George Saintsbury, ed.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905. 508-9.

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