The morning rose that untouched stands Armed with her briers, how sweetly smells!
But plucked and strained through ruder hands,
PACK clouds away, and welcome day, With night we banish sorrow; Sweet air, blow soft; mount, larks, aloft, To give my love good-morrow. Wings from the wind to please her mind, Notes from the lark I 'il borrow; Bird, prune thy wing; nightingale, sing, To give my love good-morrow.
Wake from thy nest, robin redbreast; Sing, birds, in every furrow; And from each hill let music shrill Give my fair love good-morrow. Black bird and thrush in every bush, Stare, linnet, and cock-sparrow; You pretty elves, among yourselves, Sing my fair love good-morrow.
No more her sweetness with her dwells, I soUGHT thee round about, O thou my
But scent and beauty both are gone, And leaves fall from her, one by one.
Offended with my question, in full choir, I answered: The all-potent, sole, imAnswered, “To find thy God thou must
Surpassing sense;
Unspeakable, inscrutable, eternal, Lord over all;
The only terrible, strong, just, and true, Who hath no end, and no beginning knew.
(So far forth as it may discovered be) Methinks I see;
And though invisible and infinite, To human sight
Thou, in thy mercy, justice, truth, ap- pearest, In which, to our weak sense, thou comest nearest.
O, make us apt to seek and quick to find, Thou, God, most kind!
Give us love, hope, and faith, in thee to trust,
Thou, God, most just!
Remit all our offences, we entreat, Most good! most great! Grant that our willing, though unworthy quest
through thy grace, admit us 'mongst the blest.
LIKE to the falling of a star, Or as the flights of eagles are; Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue, Or silver drops of morning dew;
Or like a wind that chafes the flood, Or bubbles which on water stood: Even such is man, whose borrowed light Is straight called in, and paid to-night. The wind blows out, the bubble dies; The spring entombed in autumn lies; The dew dries up, the star is shot; The flight is past, and man forgot.
SLEEP on, my love, in thy cold bed, Never to be disquieted!
My last good night! Thou wilt not wake Till I thy fate shall overtake; Till age, or grief, or sickness must Marry my body to that dust
It so much loves, and fill the room My heart keeps empty in thy tomb.
Stay for me there! I will not fail To meet thee in that hollow vale. And think not much of my delay: I am already on the way, And follow thee with all the speed Desire can make, or sorrow breed. Each minute is a short degree, And every hour a step towards thee. At night, when I betake to rest, Next morn I rise nearer my west Of life, almost by eight hours' sail, Than when sleep breathed his drowsy gale. Thus from the sun my vessel steers, And my day's compass downward bears: Nor labor I to stem the tide Through which to thee I swiftly glide.
'Tis true, with shame and grief I yield, Thou, like the van, first took 'st the field, And gotten hast the victory, In thus adventuring to die Before me, whose more years might crave A just precedence in the grave. But hark! my pulse, like a soft drum, Beats my approach, tells thee I come: And slow howe'er my marches be, I shall at last sit down by thee.
The thought of this bids me go on, And wait my dissolution
With hope and comfort. Dear, forgive The crime, I am content to live Divided, with but half a heart, Till we shall meet, and never part.
Your heads must come To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust.
EDWARD HERBERT, (EARL OF CHERBURY.)
WALKING thus towards a pleasant grove, Which did, it seemed, in new delight The pleasures of the time unite To give a triumph to their love, They stayed at last, and on the grass Reposéd so as o'er his breast
She bowed her gracious head to rest, Such a weight as no burden was. Long their fixed eyes to heaven bent, Unchanged they did never move, As if so great and pure a love No glass but it could represent. "These eyes again thine eyes shall see, Thy hands again these hands infold, And all chaste pleasures can be told, Shall with us everlasting be. Let then no doubt, Celinda, touch, Much less your fairest mind invade; Were not our souls immortal made, Our equal loves can make them such."
THE night is come; like to the day, Depart not thou, gieat God, away. Let not my sins, black as the night, Eclipse the lustre of thy light. Keep in my horizon: for to me The sun makes not the day, but thee. Thou whose nature cannot sleep, On my temples sentry keep: Guard me 'gainst those watchful foes, Whose eyes are open while mine close. Let no dreams my head infest But such as Jacob's temples blest.
Whilst I do rest, my soul advance; Make my sleep a holy trance: That I may, my rest being wrought, Awake into some holy thought, And with as active vigor run My course, as doth the nimble sun. Sleep is a death; O, make me try, By sleeping, what it is to die: And as gently lay my head On my grave as now my bed. Howe'er I rest, great God, let me Awake again at last with thee. And thus assured, behold I lie Securely, or to wake or die. These are my drowsy days; in vain I do now wake to sleep again: O, come that hour when I shall never Sleep thus again, but wake forever.
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