East and West touch, the poles do kisse,

And parallels meet.

Since, then, my grief must be as large

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As is Thy space,

Thy distance from me; see my charge,

Lord, see my case.

O take these barres, these lengths away;

Turn, and restore me :

'Be not Almightie,' let me say,

'Against, but for me.'

When Thou dost turn, and wilt be neare,

What edge so keen,

What point so piercing can appeare

To come between?

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For as Thy absence doth excell

All distance known,

So doth Thy nearnesse bear the bell,

O, who will give me tears? Come, all ye springs,

Dwell in my head and eyes; come, clouds and rain;
My grief hath need of all the watry things
That nature hath produc'd let ev'ry vein
Suck up a river to supply mine eyes,
My weary weeping eyes, too drie for me,
Unlesse they get new conduits, new supplies,
To bear them out, and with my state agree.
What are two shallow foords, two little spouts
Of a lesse world? the greater is but small,
A narrow cupboard for my griefs and doubts,
Which want provision in the midst of all.
Verses, ye are too fine a thing, too wise,

For my rough sorrows; cease, be dumbe and mute,
Give up your feet and running to mine eyes,
And keep your measures for some lover's lute,
Whose grief allows him musick and a ryme;
For mine excludes both measure, tune, and time:
Alas, my God!

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ΤΟ

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131. THE CROSSE.

What is this strange and uncouth thing, To make me sigh, and seek, and faint, and die, Untill I had some place where I might sing

And serve Thee; and not onely I,

But all my wealth and familie might combine
To set Thy honour up as our designe?

And then, when, after much delay,

Much wrestling, many a combate, this deare end,

So much desir'd, is giv'n; to take away

My power to serve Thee; to unbend

All my abilities, my designes confound,

And lay my threatnings bleeding on the ground.

One ague dwelleth in my bones,

Another in my soul,-the memorie

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Could be allow'd for harmonie ;

What I would do for Thee, if once my grones

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I am in all a weak disabled thing,

Save in the sight thereof, where strength doth sting.

Besides, things sort not to my will

Ev'n when my will doth studie Thy renown:
Thou turnest th' edge of all things on me still,
Taking me up to throw me down ;

So that, ev'n when my hopes seem to be sped,
I am to grief alive, to them as dead.

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To have my aim, and yet to be

Farther from it then when I bent my bow;

To make my hopes my torture, and the fee

Of all my woes another wo,

Is in the midst of delicates to need,

And ev'n in Paradise to be a weed.

Ah, my deare Father, ease my smart!

These contrarieties crush me; these crosse actions

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And yet since these Thy contradictions.

Doe winde a rope about, and cut my heart:

Are properly a crosse felt by Thy Sonne

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With but foure words, my words, 'Thy will be done!'

132. THE FLOWER.

How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are Thy returns! ev'n as the flow'rs in Spring,
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring;
Grief melts away

Like snow in May,

As if there were no such cold thing.

Who would have thought my shrivel'd heart
Could have recover'd greennesse? It was gone
Quite under ground; as flow'rs depart
To see their mother-root, when they have blown,
Where they together

All the hard weather,

Dead to the world, keep house unknown.

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ΙΟ

These are Thy wonders, Lord of power, Killing and quickning, bringing down to Hell

And up to Heaven in an houre; Making a chiming of a passing-bell. We say amisse

This or that is;

Thy word is all, if we could spell.

O that I once past changing were,

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interpret

Fast in Thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!

Many a Spring I shoot up fair,

Offring at Heav'n, growing and groning thither;

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Nor doth my flower

Want a Spring-showre,

My sinnes and I joyning together.

But while I grow in a straight line,

Still upwards bent, as if Heav'n were mine own,
Thy anger comes, and I decline:

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What frost to that? what pole is not the zone

I once more smell the dew and rain,

And relish versing: O, my onely Light,

It cannot be

That I am he

On whom Thy tempests fell all night.

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