He held, I chanc’d to look,And spied his curious bookOf past days, where sad Heav’n did shedA mourning light upon the dead.Many disorder’d lives I saw,And foul records, which thawMy kind eyes still, but inA fair, white page of thinAnd ev’n, smooth lines, like the sun’s rays,Thy name was writ, and all thy days.O bright…
To warm thee, with new fires; and graceThose arms I left behind:Were he as faithful as the Sun,That’s wedded to the Sphere;His blood as chaste and temperate run,As April’s mildest tear;Or were he rich; and, with his heapAnd spacious share of earth,Could make divine affection cheap,And court his golden birth;For all these arts, I’d not…
3 All calm, as it was bright;4 And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,5 Driv’n by the spheres6 Like a vast shadow mov’d; in which the world7 And all her train were hurl’d.8 The doting lover in his quaintest strain9 Did there complain;10 Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his flights,11 Wit’s…
In sighs, and tears !‘Tis now, since you have lain thus dead,Some twenty years ;Awake, awake,Some pity takeUpon yourselves !Who never wake to groan, nor weep,Shall be sentenc’d for their sleep.2.Do but see your sad estate,How many sandsHave left us, while we careless sateWith folded hands ;What stock of nights,Of days, and yearsIn silent flightsStole…
And on the verge of that dark, dreadful pitDid hear them yell,But O thy love! thy rich, almighty loveThat sav’d my soul,And checkt their fury, when I saw them move,And heard them howl;O my sole comfort, take no more these ways,This hideous path,And I will mend my own without delays,Cease thou thy wrath!I have deserv’d…
Into this bird? To all the breedThis busy ray Thou hast assigned;Their magnetism works all night,And dreams of paradise and light.Their eyes watch for the morning hue;Their little grain, expelling night,So shines and sings as if it knewThe path unto the house of light.It seems their candle, howe’er done,Was tinned and lighted at the sun.If…
I stole abroad,It was high-spring, and all the wayPrimros’d, and hung with shade;Yet, was it frost within,And surly windsBlasted my infant buds, and sinLike clouds eclips’d my mind.2.Storm’d thus; I straight perceiv’d my springMere stage, and show,My walk a monstrous, mountain’s thingRough-cast with rocks, and snow;And as a pilgrim’s eyeFar from relief,Measures the melancholy skyThen…
To make us more, Thou wouldst be less,And becam’st a woful story.To put on clouds instead of light,And clothe the morning-star with dust,Was a translation of such heightAs, but in Thee, was ne’er express’d.Brave worms and earth ! that thus could haveA God enclos’d within your cell,Your Maker pent up in a grave,Life lock’d in…
Whose leaders to those pastures, and clear springs,Were patriarchs, saints, and kings,How happened it that in the dead of nightYou only saw true light,While Palestine was fast asleep, and layWithout one thought of day?Was it because those first and blessed swainsWere pilgrims on those plainsWhen they received the promise, for which now‘Twas there first shown…
Heaven once a week;The next world’s gladness prepossest in this;A day to seek;Eternity in time; the steps by whichWe Climb above all ages; Lamps that lightMan through his heap of dark days; and the rich,And full redemption of the whole week’s flight.2The Pulleys unto headlong man; time’s bower;The narrow way;Transplanted Paradise; God’s walking hour;The Cool…
