If this world's friends might see but once What some poor man may often feel, Glory, and gold, and crowns and thrones They would soon quit and learn to kneel. My dew, my dew! my early love, My soul's bright food, thy absence kills! Hover not long, eternal Dove! Life without thee is loose and spills. Something I had, which long ago Did learn to suck, and sip, and taste, But now grown sickly, sad and slow, Doth fret and wrangle, pine and waste. O spread thy sacred wings and shake One living drop! one drop life keeps! If pious griefs Heaven's joys awake, O fill his bottle! Thy child weeps! Slowly and sadly doth he grow, And soon as left, shrinks back to ill; O feed that life, which makes him blow And spread and open to thy will! For thy eternal, living wells None stained or withered shall come near: A fresh, immortal @3green@1 there dwells, And spotless @3white@1 is all the wear. Dear, secret @3greenness@1! nursed below Tempests and winds, and winter-nights, Vex not, that but one sees thee grow, That @3One@1 made all these lesser lights. If those bright joys he singly sheds On thee, were all met in one crown, Both sun and stars would hide their heads; And moons, though full, would get them down. Let glory be their bait, whose minds Are all too high for a low cell: Though hawks can prey through storms and winds, The poor bee in her hive must dwell. Glory, the crowd's cheap tinsel, still To what most takes them, is a drudge; And they too oft take good for ill, And thriving vice for virtue judge. What needs a conscience calm and bright Within itself an outward test? Who breaks his glass to take more light, Makes way for storms into his rest. Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb; Keep clean, bear fruit, earn life and watch Till the white-winged Reapers come! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO -, WITH A ROSE by SIDNEY LANIER WILLIE BREW'D A PECK O' MAUT by ROBERT BURNS TO HIS DEAD BODY by SIEGFRIED SASSOON THE HARVEST by EVA K. ANGLESBURG THE NURSE'S STORY: THE HAND OF GLORY by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM |