How shrill are silent tears! when sin got head And all my bowels turned To brass and iron; when my stock lay dead, And all my powers mourned; Then did these drops (for marble sweats, And rocks have tears) As rain here at our windows beats, Chide in thine ears; 2 No quiet couldst thou have: nor didst thou wink, And let thy beggar lie, But ere my eyes could overflow their brink Didst to each drop reply; Bowels of love! at what low rate, And slight a price Dost thou relieve us at thy gate, And still our cries! 3 We are thy infants, and suck thee; if thou But hide, or turn thy face, Because where thou art, yet, we cannot go, We send tears to the place, These find thee out, and though our sins Drove thee away, Yet with thy love that absence wins Us double pay. 4 O give me then a thankful heart! a heart After thy own, not mine; So after thine, that all and ev'ry part Of mine, may wait on thine; O hear! yet not my tears alone, Hear now a flood, A flood that drowns both tears and groans, My Saviour's blood. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A DEATH SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR QUATRAIN: THE PARCAE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH SOMETIME, SOMEWHERE by OPHELIA G. BROWNING UPON YE SIGHT OF MY ABORTIVE BIRTH YE 31TH: OF DECEMBER 1657 by MARY CAREY SONGS OF THE SEA CHILDREN: 23 by BLISS CARMAN AT BEETHOVEN'S FUNERAL by IGNAZ FRANZ CASTELLI |