Home ⇒ 📌Anne Bradstreet ⇒ Meditations Divine and Moral
Meditations Divine and Moral
A ship that bears much sail, and little ballast, is easily
Overset; and that man, whose head hath great abilities, and his
Heart little or no grace, is in danger of foundering.
The finest bread has the least bran; the purest honey, the
Least wax; and the sincerest Christian, the least self-love.
Sweet words are like honey; a little may refresh, but too much
Gluts the stomach.
Divers children have their different natures: some are like
Flesh which nothing but salt will keep from putrefaction; some
Again like tender fruits that are best preserved with sugar. Those
Parents are wise that can fit their nurture according to their
Nature.
Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge,
Fitter to bruise than polish.
The reason why Christians are so loath to exchange this world
For a better, is because they have more sense than faith: they see
What they enjoy, they do
Dim eyes are the concomitants of old age; and short –
Sightedness, in those that are the eyes of a Republic, foretells a
Declining State.
Wickedness comes to its height by degrees. He that dares say
Of a less sin, Is it not a little one? will erelong say of a
Greater, Tush, God regards it not.
Fire hath its force abated by water, not by wind; and anger
Must be allayed by cold words and not by blustering threats.
The gifts that God bestows on the sons of men, are not only
Abused, but most commonly employed for a clean contrary end than
That which they were given for; as health, wealth, and honor, which
Might be so many steps to draw men to God in consideration of his
Bounty towards them, but have driven them the further from him,
That they are ready to say, We are lords, we will come no more at
Thee. If outward blessings be not as wings to help us mount
Upwards, they will certainly prove clogs and weights that will pull
Us lower downward.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)Related poetry:
- Here Follow Several Occasional Meditations By night when others soundly slept, And had at once both case and rest, My waking eyes were open kept And so to lie I found it best. I sought Him whom my soul did love, With tears I sought Him earnestly; He bowed His ear down from above. In vain I did not seek […]...
- The Divine Vision THIS mood hath known all beauty, for it sees O’erwhelmed majesties In these pale forms, and kingly crowns of gold On brows no longer bold, And through the shadowy terrors of their hell The love for which they fell, And how desire which cast them in the deep Called God too from His sleep. Oh, […]...
- A Divine Mistress In Nature’s pieces still I see Some error that might mended be; Something my wish could still remove, Alter or add; but my fair love Was fram’d by hands far more divine, For she hath every beauteous line: Yet I had been far happier, Had Nature, that made me, made her. Then likeness might (that […]...
- Meditations In Time Of Civil War I. Ancestral Houses Surely among a rich man’s flowering lawns, Amid the rustle of his planted hills, Life overflows without ambitious pains; And rains down life until the basin spills, And mounts more dizzy high the more it rains As though to choose whatever shape it wills And never stoop to a mechanical Or servile […]...
- Moral Song Would we attain the happiest State, That is design’d us here; No Joy a Rapture must create, No Grief beget Despair. No Injury fierce Anger raise, No Honour tempt to Pride; No vain Desires of empty Praise Must in the Soul abide. No Charms of Youth, or Beauty move The constant, settl’d Breast: Who leaves […]...
- The Divine Lullaby I hear Thy voice, dear Lord; I hear it by the stormy sea When winter nights are black and wild, And when, affright, I call to Thee; It calms my fears and whispers me, “Sleep well, my child.” I hear Thy voice, dear Lord, In singing winds, in falling snow, The curfew chimes, the midnight […]...
- Divine Visitation THE HEAVENS lay hold on us: the starry rays Fondle with flickering fingers brow and eyes: A new enchantment lights the ancient skies. What is it looks between us gaze on gaze; Does the wild spirit of the endless days Chase through my heart some lure that ever flies? Only I know the vast within […]...
- Psalm 144 part 3 v.12-15 L. M. Grace above riches; or, The happy nation. Happy the city where their sons, Like pillars round a palace set, And daughters, bright as polished stones, Give strength and beauty to the state. Happy the country where the sheep, Cattle, and corn, have large increase; Where men securely work or sleep, Nor sons […]...
- Psalm Three On the day when my words Were earth… I was a friend to stalks of wheat. On the day when my words Were wrath I was a friend to chains. On the day when my words Were stones I was a friend to streams. On the day when my words Were a rebellion I was […]...
- A poem on divine revelation This is a day of happiness, sweet peace, And heavenly sunshine; upon which conven’d In full assembly fair, once more we view, And hail with voice expressive of the heart, Patrons and sons of this illustrious hall. This hall more worthy of its rising fame Than hall on mountain or romantic hill, Where Druid bards […]...
- About My Poetry I have no silver-saddled horse to ride, No inheritance to live on, Neither riches no real-estate A pot of honey is all I own. A pot of honey red as fire! My honey is my everything. I guard My riches and my real-estate my honey pot, I mean From pests of every species, Brother, just […]...
- A Negro Love Song Seen my lady home las’ night, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hel’ huh han’ an’ sque’z it tight, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hyeahd huh sigh a little sigh, Seen a light gleam f’om huh eye, An’ a smile go flittin’ by Jump back, honey, jump back. Hyeahd de win’ blow thoo de pine, Jump […]...
- Divine Device Would it be loss or gain To hapless human-kind If we could feel no pain Of body or of mind? Would it be for our good If we were calloused so, And God in mercy should End all our woe? I wonder and I doubt: It is my bright belief We should be poor without […]...
- The Divine Image To Mercy Pity Peace and Love. All pray in their distress: And to these virtues of delight Return their thankfulness. For Mercy Pity Peace and Love, Is God our Father dear: And Mercy Pity Peace and Love, Is Man his child and care. For Mercy has a human heart Pity, a human face: And Love, […]...
- Divine Detachment One day the Great Designer sought His Clerk of Birth and Death. Said he: “Two souls are in my thought, To whom I gave life-breath. I deemed my work was fitly done, But yester-eve I saw That in the finished brain of one There was a tiny flaw. “It worried me, and I would know, […]...
- Jesus, Thou Divine Companion Jesus, Thou divine Companion, By Thy lowly human birth Thou hast come to join the workers, Burden bearers of the earth. Thou, the Carpenter of Nazareth, Toiling for Thy daily food, By Thy patience and Thy courage, Thou hast taught us toil is good. They who tread the path of labor Follow where Thy feet […]...
- Divine Epigrams: On the Baptized Ethiopian To wash an Ethiope; He’s wash’d, his gloomy skin a peaceful shade, For his white soul is made; And now, I doubt not, the Eternal Dove A black-fac’d house will love....
- Title divine is mine! Title divine is mine! The Wife without the Sign! Acute Degree conferred on me Empress of Calvary! Royal all but the Crown! Betrothed without the swoon God sends us Women When you hold Garnet to Garnet Gold to Gold Born Bridalled Shrouded In a Day Tri Victory “My Husband” women say Stroking the Melody Is […]...
- One Of Twain One of twain, twin-born with flowers that waken, Now hath passed from sense of sun and rain: Wind from off the flower-crowned branch hath shaken One of twain. One twin flower must pass, and one remain: One, the word said soothly, shall be taken, And another left: can death refrain? Two years since was love’s […]...
- Divine Epigrams: On the Miracle of the Multiplied Loaves See here an easy feast that knows no wound, That under hunger’s teeth will needs be sound; A subtle harvest of unbounded bread, What would ye more? Here food itself is fed....
- Divine Epigrams: To our Lord, upon the Water Made Wine Thou water turn’st to wine, fair friend of life, Thy foe, to cross the sweet arts of thy reign, Distills from thence the tears of wrath and strife, And so turns wine to water back again....
- The Necessitarian I know not in Whose hands are laid To empty upon earth From unsuspected ambuscade The very Urns of Mirth; Who bids the Heavenly Lark arise And cheer our solemn round The Jest beheld with streaming eyes And grovellings on the ground; Who joins the flats of Time and Chance Behind the prey preferred, And […]...
- Words Words are like days: Coloring books or pickpockets, Signposts or scratching posts, Fakirs over hot coals. Certain words must be earned Just as emotions are suffered Before they can be uttered – clean as a kept promise. Words as witnesses Testifying their truths Squalid or rarefied Inevitable, irrefutable. But, words must not carry More than […]...
- Psalm 103 part 2 v.8-18 L. M. God’s gentle chastisement; or, His tender mercy to his people. The Lord, how wondrous are his ways! How firm his truth! how large his grace! He takes his mercy for his throne, And thence he makes his glories known. Not half so high his power hath spread The starry heav’ns above our […]...
- What Would I Give What would I give for a heart of flesh to warm me through, Instead of this heart of stone ice-cold whatever I do! Hard and cold and small, of all hearts the worst of all. What would I give for words, if only words would come! But now in its misery my spirit has fallen […]...
- Rita And The Rifle Between Rita and my eyes There is a rifle And whoever knows Rita Kneels and plays To the divinity in those honey-colored eyes And I kissed Rita When she was young And I remember how she approached And how my arm covered the loveliest of braids And I remember Rita The way a sparrow remembers […]...
- Sonnet LXXXII I grant thou wert not married to my Muse And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook The dedicated words which writers use Of their fair subject, blessing every book Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, Finding thy worth a limit past my praise, And therefore art enforced to seek anew Some fresher stamp […]...
- Sonnet 82: I grant thou wert not married to my Muse I grant thou wert not married to my Muse, And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook The dedicated words which writers use Of their fair subject, blessing every book. Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, Finding thy worth a limit past my praise, And therefore art enforced to seek anew Some fresher stamp […]...
- Love's Strategems But these maneuverings to avoid The touching of hands, These shifts to keep the eyes employed On objects more or less neutral (As honor, for time being, commands) Will hardly prevent their downfall. Stronger medicines are needed. Already they find None of their strategems have succeeded, Nor would have, no, Not had their eyes been […]...
- A Song of the Republic Sons of the South, awake! arise! Sons of the South, and do. Banish from under your bonny skies Those old-world errors and wrongs and lies. Making a hell in a Paradise That belongs to your sons and you. Sons of the South, make choice between (Sons of the South, choose true), The Land of Morn […]...
- The Scribe What lovely things Thy hand hath made: The smooth-plumed bird In its emerald shade, The seed of the grass, The speck of the stone Which the wayfaring ant Stirs and hastes on! Though I should sit By some tarn in thy hills, Using its ink As the spirit wills To write of Earth’s wonders, Its […]...
- Time to play It is a pristine page, clean on the blue screen Where I compose, I don’t expect it to stay that way As words glow from blunt, abused fingers, as insistent Sounds in my head translate into sentence structures, As lips articulate the rhythms and the sounds of the Jumbled lexis as swiftly as I can […]...
- The Death of Grandfather We waited commonly for sleep or even death. The instances were wearisome as ages. But suddenly the wind’s refreshing breath Touched through the window the Holy Bible’s pages: An old man goes there – who’s now all white-haired – With rapid steps and merry eyes, alone, He smiles to us, and often calls with hand, […]...
- Psalm XXXII: Happy the Man Happy the man to whom his God No more imputes his sin, But, washed in the Redeemer’s blood, Hath made his garments clean. Happy beyond expression he Who debts are thus discharged; And from the guilty bondage free, He feels his soul enlarged. His spirit hates deceit and lies, His words are all sincere; He […]...
- My Bees: An Allegory “O bees, sweet bees!” I said, “that nearest field Is shining white with fragrant immortelles. Fly swiftly there and drain those honey wells.” Then, spicy pines the sunny hive to shield, I set, and patient for the autumn’s yield Of sweet I waited. When the village bells Rang frosty clear, and from their satin cells […]...
- SECOND POEM Morning again, nothing has to be done, maybe buy a piano or make fudge. At least clean the room up for sure like my farther I’ve done flick the ashes & butts over the bed side on the floor. But frist of all wipe my glasses and drink the water to clean the smelly mouth. […]...
- Holy Sonnet XVI: Father, Part Of His Double Interest Father, part of his double interest Unto thy kingdom, thy Son gives to me, His jointure in the knotty Trinity He keeps, and gives to me his death’s conquest. This Lamb, whose death with life the world hath blest, Was from the world’s beginning slain, and he Hath made two Wills which with the Legacy […]...
- My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait Till After Hell I hold my honey and I store my bread In little jars and cabinets of my will. I label clearly, and each latch and lid I bid, Be firm till I return from hell. I am very hungry. I am incomplete. And none can give me any word but Wait, The puny light. I keep […]...
- Hiawathas' photographing ( Part V ) Last, the youngest son was taken: Very rough and thick his hair was, Very round and red his face was, Very dusty was his jacket, Very fidgety his manner. And his overbearing sisters Called him names he disapproved of: Called him Johnny, ‘Daddy’s Darling,’ Called him Jacky, ‘Scrubby School-boy.’ And, so awful was the picture, […]...
- Sonnet XXIV Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath stell’d Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart; My body is the frame wherein ’tis held, And perspective it is the painter’s art. For through the painter must you see his skill, To find where your true image pictured lies; Which in my bosom’s shop is […]...