Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	cloud_n	day_n	night_n	5,094	5	7.2477	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42455	Akamaton pyr, or, The dreadful burning of London described in a poem / by J.G.	J. G.	1667 (1667)	Wing G31; ESTC R30396	9,509	21

sooner some out of their Beds were gone But in bright Sheets of Flames their Houses shone And newly but awake as now they gaze Upon whole Streets in such a dismal Blaze They seem as still asleep and what they see As some dire dream without reality Such dread makes them their own eyes scarce believe Or to their very Senses credit give So much amaz'd they stand orecome with fear As but unmoving Statues they appear Thus once Lot's Wife did to a Pillar turn As soon as she beheld her Sodom burn And here although whole Streets prove but a Prey To hungry Flames through which they eat their way How few among such multitudes engage To check their progress or to quench their rage So wide they spread and did so high aspire As if sank down th' whole Element of Fire And did to us so great a Maze present As if were wrapt in Flames the Firmament * Tempus erat quo prima quies Mortalibus aegris Incipit Virg. Æn. 2. Some who this Fire would with resistance meet By others are * Pars morans pars festinans cuncta impediebant Tacit. de Rom. Incend obstructed in the Street Who onely striving to secure their Goods Justle down those who bring opposing Floods Who laden thus with water and thrown down Admidst the Flames at once both burn and drown Others their Water-Engins full do bring Which on the Flames opposng showres fling Whose streams with such a force ascend so high As if they could therewith the Clouds supply The Pipe are cut and all the † Restringere fontibus ignes Virg. Conduits flow And on the Fire repeated Flouds men throw Yet Pyramids of Flames invade the Skies Whose thirst the watry Clouds could scarce suffice But lick their moistures up so make them dry That without water * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jud. 12. Clouds they seem thereby And none but clouds of smoak about us hover Whose sable wings do th' whole Horizon cover As the destructive Fire doth forward creep Its shining train whole Streets away doth sweep Which wandring Flames lose and destroy their way And having ruin'd all themselves decay Such ranks of Flames the chief fire forward leads Which Hydra-like lifts up a hundred heads They dance at the least Whistle of the Wind Leaving dire foot steps of their rage behind At last so boundless in their Progress they As uncontroll'd no limits scarce obey Which thirsty fire the flowing waters drank And made the very Thames shrink from its bank And was so hungry too whole Streets became As fuel but to feed this greedy * Ignis edax summo ad vestigia vento Volvitur Virg. Flame But as it feeds it still the more doth crave Unsatisfy'd like the devouring Grave Whole Parishes its rage did but excite And not appease its wanton appetite Elijah's Victim on the Altar fum'd And by his fire of zeal was soon consum'd Whose rapid Flames the waters in the trench Could not by all their swelling moistures quench Which could no more their raging thirst allay Than th' Holocaust their hunger take away Our Altars fume but not with their own fire And for a Sacrifice now burns the Quite Luxuriant Flames made beauteous Piles to be The objects of their wanton cruelty But as those Flames in several ranks divide And as they march stretch o're from side to side 'T was as the Psalmist once sang to his Lyre The voice of God divider the flames of fire The Blaze of two dire Comets did fore-run This stream of Flames which should out-blaze the Sun Which to the middle Region did aspire As if it would convert it to one fire Or onely to a gen'ral Comet turn Which might be seen by the whole world to burn Then angry Heaven more direful thunders sent Which sturdy Oaks and lofty Steeples rent So Rome before its dismal Fire did see † Vulgantur prodigia imminentiu● malorum nuntia vis fulgurum non alias crebrior sidus cometes Tacit. 15. Annal. Signs which presag'd an angry Deity Phoebus lookt down and blusht at such a sight To be out-shone by an inferiour Light Who seem'd not onely red when first he rose But so remain'd till he the day did close And at so great a Conflagration stood As at his Solstice and seem'd turn'd to blood While up and down th' affrighted people run As if indeed Dooms-day were now begun The Sun now fears a Peregaeum while Such clouds of smoak his purer light defile Which though all day did but eclipse his light Yet flames supply'd his absence in the night And doth fair Cynthia shrink into her Wain Lest such black clouds her beauty too should stain Draws in her horns as if her force were spent While Fire o'recomes her liquid Element Doubting though in the Sea she dipt her horn So great a fire might all her moisturescorn Those flames so great a light did spread that they Seem'd to recall the new departed day The lesser Stars within their sockets shrink As tender eyes before great light that wink Which eyes of Heaven thus twinckle all the night While such vast flames cast a perstringent light Before the Sun an Eastern Wind doth rise Which made the flames shoot sparks up to the Skies Which shone so bright as if indeed they strove To adde new lights unto the stars above Cold gusts of wind these ardors more intend Which make the flames their Ruines forward send The brightest of them rush tow'rd Lumbard Street And lick up all opposing streams they meet Where they the Jewels and rich Stones out-shine And do the Gold but once again refine This Fire which we not only forward trace Which Janus like presents a double face And doth not only burn before the wind But backward shoots its flames as far behind As when a Serpent wreaths his head about And as he twines doth shoot his fork't sting out Whose wrigling tail though sever'd yet doth threat Still Parthian like to wound in his retreat Thus though this fiery Serpent cut in twain Yet scarce wounds with his head more than his train While it doth toward the Bridge now backward turn To tantalize the Waves and o're them burn Doth Vulcan against Neptune seem to rage Who with his Waves could not his ardours swage And threatens too those Ships on th' other side Which Nereus scarce could rescue with his tide Thus when renowned * Aemelianus classem sub ipso ore urbis incendit Flor. lib. 2. c. 15 Per mania clarior ignis Virg. * Auditur propriusque aestus incendia volvunt Carthage once was fir'd By the same flames the Navy too expir'd The Bridge thus burning might some think the while 'T was to those trait'rous heads a Funeral-pile Whose ashes yet like Traytors are deny'd An Urn while swallow'd by the angry Tide Neptune looks up on this insulting Fire Which higher than his Surges doth aspire Who with his swelling I ides could scarce out-roar

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR THE Dreadful Burning OF LONDON Described in a POEM BY J. G. M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Halicarn d Rom. Incend lib. 5. p. 313. Licensed May 2. 1667. Roger L'Estrange LONDON Printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange 1667. To the Right Worshipful Sir VVilliam Turner Knight and Alderman of the City of LONDON SIR TO make your Name preliminary to so mean a Pamphlet created in me as great a doubt as whether so inconsiderate a Pen should make an Essay upon so great a Subject Yet as the attempt upon the Subject so the boldness in its Dedication seems not without some reason though I might rather have appear'd like pious Æneas in carrying his Father from the Flames of Troy than endeavour to imitate lofty Maro in describing them Yet might those Feet perhaps which hastened from the Flames at the same time run into Verses I know not why the instigation of some should be so very earnest in importuning me hereto knowing me to have trod more upon Vesuvius than Parnassus unless they imagin'd I might thereupon write sensibly though not elegantly on such a Subject of Fire But the Pen to describe this unparalell'd Fire should be like its Flames to soar high and be perspicuous too mounting above its own smoak and not to wrap it self up in sheets of obscurity and should be like that of the Eagle which fans the Clouds and approaches the Sun Your great Concern Sir as to the subject of this ●●●m and ●ur Rank as one of the chiefs if that Court which represents out Metropolis being sheriff thereof not long before its deplorable Ruine and now deligated as one of those to order and direct in its re-edifying might partly occasion this address to your self which might not onely affect you with the remembrance of its former State but excite you in the Contrivance of its future Glory Now though this Description of so severe a Providence may be but as an imperfect Draught to you having I suppose seen the thing it self acted the aifference being as great as between painted and real Fire yet mayit serve as a Remembrance to those who though they felt something of its Effects yet never saw any thing of its Tenrours Who may hereby understand how dreadful this Fire was which though at first stole upon the City in the deepest silence of the Night yet did soon discover it self by its own Splendour whose Flames by their great Light did soon proclaim that Ruine they made by their destructive Heat which seem'd as 't were chearful in devouring but as soon as they ceased to leap and dance at the destruction of others they perisht themselves Whence of old the † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 3. p. 10. Egyptians were perswaded that Fire was an animated Creature made onely to destroy and after satiated to dye with the thing devour'd But the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Persians proceed farther and adore it as a God Such indeed is the dread of this devouring Element that the Eternal Deity sometimes condescends to the resemblance of a consuming Fire and his teerrours to everlasting Burnings and how may we look upon this as a display of his Justice for whether or no this Fire began by a malitious hand yet must we look upon it as blown up by our Sins Such kind of malitious Practices may be traced back as far as Heathen Rome according to that of the Satyrist Conter Conductum Latronem Incendia Sulphure cepta Atquo dolo primos cum janua colligit ignes Juv. lib. 5. Sat. 13. Or as another observes Candelam apponere valvis Non dubitet This Fire seem'd like that in the tails of Sampsons Foxes which burn'd that which should have become others bread this made many wealthy Citizens become poor Almes-men whose mouths are as open now to ask at their hands before were to bestow Charity whose Dwellings being burn'd and their Trades wasted are reduced as the Psalmist speaks to eat ashes like bread But I hope the singular Care of our Sovereign and the earnest Endeavours of our Magistrates for the Re-building this famous City and for the Restoring of our waste Places may at the same time raise London out of its Ashes and poor Citizens out of the Dust Having made a Poetical Attempt in describing the dismal Ruine of so Renown'd a City I wish now I could so much farther play the Port as to be like that Thracian whose strains could make confus'd Stones rally into order Or as Amphion who allur'd them into the Walls of Thebes however might I vatem agere may I rather sing its approaching Glory than late Ruine Especially if the affair of its Re-building continue in part under Your most Prudent Care and I under Your former Favour the acknowledgement of which while it now becomes like your Name publick yet I hope if I have thereby offended that the same generous disposition that can so freely bestow a Favour will as freely pardon a Fault and what I have do●e in this Address that it may be attributed rather to my Endeavour of becoming grateful than offensive for hence it is that I desired to publish how much I am Honoured Sir Your most Obliged and Humble Servant J. G. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR The dreadful Burning of London While urgent * Sopor fessos complectitur artus Virg. Lib. 2. Sleep our heavy Eyes did clole And wrapt our mindes up in a soft Repose Some glowing Coal silent and dark as night Shakes its black Embers off so shews its light Which through some narrow room did gently creep With a still foot e're it abroad durst peep Which will no longer now confined be But steals forth with a kind of subtilty Though on its way Night had her Poppy shed Yet is reveal'd by its own Light it spread And with a train at last in publick goes And as it marches forward stronger grows Surprizing all before it as it burns And to itself all opposition turns Nor was its Rise more sudden by a blaste Than th' Execution which it made in haste As an inrag'd Invader straight doth spread His bloudy Banners which still Menace dread Wasting where e're he comes whose anger burns And into dreadful Flames the Countrey turns Which dismal ruine that he leaves behind Scarce satisfies the fury of his mind Thus doth this raging Fire lift up its head And its 〈◊〉 Flames abroad doth spread Which as deep midnight no●● disturbs ou●● Peace And by our Ruine do themselves encrease And as it marcheth is it trackt alone By the dire footsteps of destruction Weak at the first it humbly crept along Till higher it aspir'd as it grew strong And to exalted Pyramids doth rise Before the clogs of sleep fall from our eyes How does the crackling noise first wound our ear E're that the dreadful sight doth urge our fear No