Divine Poems Read Online

In a dungeon

They have shut my life, and cast on me a stone.

Waters flowed o'er my head, then thought I, I am

Destroyed; I called Lord, upon thy name

Out of the pit. And thou my voice didst hear;

Oh from my sigh, and cry, stop not thine ear.

Then when I called upon thee, thou drew'st near

Unto me, and said'st unto me, »Do not fear.«

Thou Lord my soul's cause handled hast, and thou

Rescued'st my life. O Lord do thou judge now,

Thou heard'st my wrong. Their vengeance all they have wrought;

How they reproached, thou hast heard, and what they thought,

What their lips uttered, which against me rose,

And what was ever whispered by my foes.

I am their song, whether they rise or sit,

Give them rewards Lord, for their working fit,

Sorrow of heart, thy curse. And with thy might

Follow, and from under heaven destroy them quite.

Chapter 4

How is the gold become so dim? How is

Purest and finest gold thus changed to this?

The stones which were stones of the Sanctuary,

Scattered in corners of each street do lie.

The precious sons of Sion, which should be

Valued as purest gold, how do we see

Low rated now, as earthen pitchers, stand,

Which are the work of a poor potter's hand.

Even the sea-calfs draw their breasts, and give

Suck to their young; my people's daughters live,

By reason of the foes' great cruelness,

As do the owls in the vast wilderness.

And when the sucking child doth strive to draw,

His tongue for thirst cleaves to his upper jaw.

And when for bread the little children cry,

There is no man that doth them satisfy.

They which before were delicately fed,

Now in the streets forlorn have perished,

And they which ever were in scarlet clothed,

Sit and embrace the dunghills which they loathed.

The daughters of my people have sinned more,

Than did the town of Sodom sin before;

Which being at once destroyed, there did remain

No hands amongst them, to vex them again.

But heretofore purer her Nazarite

Was than the snow, and milk was not so white;

As carbuncles did their pure bodies shine,

And all their polishedness was sapphirine.

They are darker now than blackness, none can know

Them by the face, as through the streets they go,

For now their skin doth cleave unto their bone,

And withered, is like to dry wood grown.

Better by sword than famine 'tis to die;

And better through pierced, than by penury.

Women by nature pitiful, have eat

Their children dressed with their own hands for meat.

Jehovah here fully accomplished hath

His indignation, and poured forth his wrath,

Kindled a fire in Sion, which hath power

To eat, and her foundations to devour.

Nor would the kings of the earth, nor all which live

In the inhabitable world believe,

That any adversary, any foe

Into Jerusalem should enter so.

For the priests' sins, and prophets', which have shed

Blood in the streets, and the just murdered:

Which when those men, whom they made blind, did stray

Thorough the streets, defiled by the way

With blood, the which impossible it was

Their garments should 'scape touching, as they pass,

Would cry aloud, »Depart defiled men,

Depart, depart, and touch us not«: and then

They fled, and strayed, and with the Gentiles were,

Yet told their friends, they should not long dwell there;

For this they are scattered by Jehovah's face

Who never will regard them more; no grace

Unto their old men shall the foe afford,

Nor, that they are priests, redeem them from the sword.

And we as yet, for all these miseries

Desiring our vain help, consume our eyes:

And such a nation as cannot save,

We in desire and speculation have.

They hunt our steps, that in the streets we fear

To go: our end is now approached near,

Our days accomplished are, this the last day.

Eagles of heaven are not so swift as they

Which follow us, o'er mountain tops they fly

At us, and for us in the desert lie.

The anointed Lord, breath of our nostrils, he

Of whom we said, »Under his shadow, we

Shall with more ease under the heathen dwell,«

Into the pit which these men digged, fell.

Rejoice O Edom's daughter, joyful be

Thou which inhabit'st Huz, for unto thee

This cup shall pass, and thou with drunkenness

Shalt fill thyself, and show thy nakedness.

And then thy sins O Sion, shall be spent,

The Lord will not leave thee in banishment.

Thy sins, O Edom's daughter, he will see,

And for them, pay thee with captivity.

Chapter 5

Remember, O Lord, what is fallen on us;

See, and mark how we are reproached thus,

For unto strangers our possession

Is turned, our houses unto aliens gone,

Our mothers are become as widows, we

As orphans all, and without father be;

Waters which are our own, we drink, and pay,

And upon our own wood a price they lay.

Our persecutors on our necks do sit,

They make us travail, and not intermit,

We stretch our hands unto th' Egyptians

To get us bread; and to the Assyrians.

Our fathers did these sins, and are no more,

But we do bear the sins they did before.

They are but servants, which do rule us thus,

Yet from their hands none would deliver us.

With danger of our life our bread we gat;

For in the wilderness, the sword did wait.

The tempests of this famine we lived in,

Black as an oven coloured had our skin:

In Judah's cities they the maids abused

By force, and so women in Sion used.

The princes with their hands they hung; no grace

Nor honour gave they to the Elder's face.

Unto the mill our young men carried are,

And children fall under the wood they bear.

Elders, the gates; youth did their songs forbear,

Gone was our joy; our dancings, mournings were.

Now is the crown fall'n from our head; and woe

Be unto us, because we'have sinned so.

For this our hearts do languish, and for this

Over our eyes a cloudy dimness is.

Because Mount Sion desolate doth He;

And foxes there do go at liberty:

But thou O Lord art ever, and thy throne

From generation, to generation.

Why shouldst thou forget us eternally?

Or leave us thus long in this misery?

Restore us Lord to thee, that so we may

Return, and as of old, renew our day.

For oughtest thou, O Lord, despise us thus,

And to be utterly enraged at us?

A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's last going into Germany

In what torn ship soever I embark,

That ship shall be my emblem of thy ark;

What sea soever swallow me, that flood

Shall be to me an emblem of thy blood;

Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise

Thy face; yet through that mask I know those eyes,

Which, though they turn away sometimes,

They never will despise.

I sacrifice this Island unto thee,

And all whom I loved there, and who loved me;

When I have put our seas 'twixt them and me,

Put thou thy sea betwixt my sins and thee.

As the tree's sap doth seek the root below

In winter, in my winter now I go,

Where none but thee, th' eternal root

Of true love I may know.

Nor thou nor thy religion dost control,

The amorousness of an harmonious soul,

But thou wouldst have that love thyself: as thou

Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now,

Thou lov'st not, till from loving more, thou free

My soul; who ever gives, takes liberty:

O, if thou car'st not whom I love

Alas, thou lov'st not me.

Seal then this bill of my divorce to all,

On whom those fainter beams of love did fall;

Marry those loves, which in youth scattered be

On fame, wit, hopes (false mistresses) to thee.

Churches are best for prayer, that have least light:

To see God only, I go out of sight:

And to 'scape stormy days, I choose

An everlasting night.

Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness

Since I am coming to that holy room,

Where, with thy choir of saints for evermore,

I shall be made thy music; as I come

I tune the instrument here at the door,

And what I must do then, think here before.

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown

Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie

Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown

That this is my south-west discovery

Per fretum febris, by these straits to die,

I joy, that in these straits, I see my west;

For, though their currents yield return to none,

What shall my west hurt me? As west and east

In all flat maps (and I am one) are one,

So death doth touch the resurrection.

Is the Pacific Sea my home? Or are

The eastern riches? Is Jerusalem?

Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar,

All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them,

Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.

We think that Paradise and Calvary,

Christ's Cross, and Adam's tree, stood in one place;

Look Lord, and find both Adams met in me;

As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face,

May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace.

So, in his purple wrapped receive me Lord,

By these his thorns give me his other crown;

And as to others' souls I preached thy word,

Be this my text, my sermon to mine own,

Therefore that he may raise the Lord throws down.

A Hymn to God the Father

I

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,

Which was my sin, though it were done before?

Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,

And do run still: though still I do deplore?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

For, I have more.

II

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won

Others to sin? and, made my sin their door?

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun

A year, or two: but wallowed in, a score?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

For I have more.

III

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun

My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;

But swear by thy self, that at my death thy son

Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;

And, having done that, thou hast done,

I fear no more.