If e'er that breath-exiléd flame return, Thou hast not blown, as it will burn. The wrongs of night: sweet Phosphor, bring the day. HENRY MORE. (1614-1687.) THE PHILOSOPHER'S DEVOTION. From Philosophical Poems, 1647; it also appears in the Divine Dialogues, 1668. More's Poems, edited by Dr. Grosart, 1878, are n the Chertsey Worthies Library. SING aloud! His praise rehearse Who hath made the universe. He the boundless heavens has spread, He that on Olympus high Tends his flocks with watchful eye, And this eye has multiplied Midst each flock for to reside1. Thus, as round about they stray, 1 the suns in their systems. Music that the heart of Jove God is good, is wise, is strong, All things back from whence they sprung, What they borrowed of the sea. Now myself I do resign; Take me whole: I all am thine. Quit from these, thy praise I'll sing, Lo! from far I you salute, Sweetly warbling on my lute— India, Egypt, Araby, Asia, Greece, and Tartary, Carmel-tracts, and Lebanon, With the Mountains of the Moon, From whence muddy Nile doth run, Or wherever else you won1: Breathing in one vital air, One we are though distant far. Rise at once; let's sacrifice: 1 dwell. Odours sweet perfume the skies; RICHARD CRASHAW. (1613?-1649.) The Wishes first appeared in Crashaw's The Delights of the Muses, 1646. The Flaming Heart: upon the Book and Picture of the Seraphical Saint Teresa first appeared in the second edition of Steps to the Temple, Sacred Poems, in 1648. The next piece is Crashaw's own translation, in 1646, of his Latin epigram No. 1, Pharisæus et Publicanus, in his Epigrammatum Sacrorum Liber, 1634. Crashaw's Works, edited by Dr. Grosart, 1872, are in the Fuller Worthies Library; his Poems are included in vol. vi. of Chalmers' Poets. WISHES: TO HIS SUPPOSED MISTRESS. WHOE'ER she be, That not impossible she That shall command my heart and me; Where'er she lie, Locked up from mortal eye, In shady leaves of Destiny; Till that ripe birth Of studied Fate stand forth, And teach her fair steps tread our Earth; Till that divine Idea take a shrine Of crystal flesh, through which to shine; Meet you her, my wishes, Bespeak her to my blisses, And be ye called, my absent kisses. I wish her, beauty That owes not all its duty To gaudy tire or glistering shoe tie. A face that 's best By its own beauty drest, And can alone commend the rest. A cheek where Youth, And blood, with pen of Truth Write, what their reader sweetly ru'th. Lips, where all day A lover's kiss may play Yet carry nothing thence away. Eyes, that displace The neighbour diamond, and out-face That sunshine, by their own sweet grace. Tresses, that wear Jewels, but to declare How much themselves more precious are. Days, that need borrow, No part of their good morrow From a forespent night of sorrow. Life, that dares send A challenge to his end And when it comes say, Welcome friend! Now if Time knows That her, whose radiant brows Her that dares be, What these lines wish to see: I seek no further: it is she. L THE FLAMING HEART. IVE in these conquering leaves; live all the same; And walk through all tongues one triumphant flame. Live here, great heart; and love and die and kill; And bleed and wound and yield and conquer still. Let this immortal life where'er it comes Walk in a crowd of loves and martyrdoms. Let mystic deaths wait on 't; and wise souls be The love-slain witnesses of this life of thee. O sweet incendiary! show here thy art, Upon this carcass of a hard cold heart; Let all thy scattered shafts of light, that play Among the leaves of thy large books of day, Combined against this breast at once break in, And take away from me my self and sin; This gracious robbery shall thy bounty be, And my best fortunes such fair spoils of me. O thou undaunted daughter of desires! (M 349) X |