Divine Visitation

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1. 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 […]...
2. Veni, Creator Spiritus Creator Spirit, by whose aid The world’s foundations first were laid, Come, visit ev’ry pious mind; Come, pour thy joys on human kind; From sin, and sorrow set us free; And make thy temples worthy Thee. O, Source of uncreated Light, The Father’s promis’d Paraclete! Thrice Holy Fount, thrice Holy Fire, Our hearts with heav’nly […]...
3. To His Mistress Why dost thou shade thy lovely face? O why Does that eclipsing hand of thine deny The sunshine of the Sun’s enlivening eye? Without thy light what light remains in me? Thou art my life; my way, my light’s in thee; I live, I move, and by thy beams I see. Thou art my life-if […]...
4. The Temper (II) It cannot be. Where is that mighty joy, Which just now took up all my heart? Lord, if thou must needs use thy dart, Save that, and me; or sin for both destroy. The grosser world stand to thy word and art; But thy diviner world of grace Thou suddenly dost raise and race, And […]...
5. PROMETHEUS COVER thy spacious heavens, Zeus, With clouds of mist, And, like the boy who lops The thistles’ heads, Disport with oaks and mountain-peaks, Yet thou must leave My earth still standing; My cottage too, which was not raised by thee; Leave me my hearth, Whose kindly glow By thee is envied. I know nought poorer […]...
6. 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....
7. 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 […]...
8. Hymn 80 An evening hymn. Psa. 4:8; 3:5,6; 148:8. Thus far the Lord has led me on, Thus far his power prolongs my days; And every evening shall make known Some fresh memorial of his grace. Much of my time has run to waste, And I perhaps am near my home; But he forgives my follies past, […]...
9. Visitation When I heard he had entered the harbor, And circled the wharf for days, I expected the worst: shallow water, Confusion, some accident to bring The young humpback to grief. Don’t they depend on a compass Lodged in the salt-flooded folds Of the brain, some delicate Musical mechanism to navigate Their true course? How many […]...
10. The Iron Age HOW came this pigmy rabble spun, After the gods and kings of old, Upon a tapestry begun With threads of silver and of gold? In heaven began the heroic tale What meaner destinies prevail! They wove about the antique brow A circlet of the heavenly air. To whom is due such reverence now, The thought […]...
11. 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 […]...
12. The Poet Pleads With The Elemental Powers The Powers whose name and shape no living creature knows Have pulled the Immortal Rose; And though the Seven Lights bowed in their dance and wept, The Polar Dragon slept, His heavy rings uncoiled from glimmering deep to deep: When will he wake from sleep? Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire, […]...
13. Psalm 89 part 5 v.30ff C. M. The covenant of grace unchangeable. “Yet,” saith the Lord, “if David’s race, The children of my Son, Should break my laws, abuse my grace, And tempt mine anger down; “Their sins I’ll visit with the rod And make their folly smart; But I’ll not cease to be their God, Nor from my […]...
14. Duality WHO gave thee such a ruby flaming heart And such a pure cold spirit? Side by side I know these must eternally abide In intimate war, and each to each impart Life from its pain, in every joy a dart To wound with grief or death the self allied. Red life within the spirit crucified, […]...
15. The Curse of Kehama I charm thy life, From the weapons of strife, From stone and from wood, From fire and from flood, From the serpent’s tooth, And the beast of blood. From sickness I charm thee, And time shall not harm thee; But earth, which is mine, Its fruits shall deny thee; And water shall hear me, And […]...
16. 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, […]...
17. A Charm Take of English earth as much As either hand may rightly clutch. In the taking of it breathe Prayer for all who lie beneath. Not the great nor well-bespoke, But the mere uncounted folk Of whose life and death is none Report or lamentation. Lay that earth upon thy heart, And thy sickness shall depart! […]...
18. 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 […]...
19. Psalm 119 part 1 The blessedness of saints, and misery of sinners. Ver. 1-3 Blest are the undefiled in heart, Whose ways are right and clean; Who never from thy law depart, But fly from every sin. Blest are the men that keep thy word, And practise thy commands; With their whole heart they seek the Lord, And serve […]...
20. Sonnet 74: But be contented when that fell arrest But be contented when that fell arrest Without all bail shall carry me away; My life hath in this line some interest, Which for memorial still with thee shall stay. When thou reviewest this, thou dost review The very part was consecrate to thee, The earth can have but earth, which is his due; My […]...
21. Sonnet LXXIV But be contented: when that fell arrest Without all bail shall carry me away, My life hath in this line some interest, Which for memorial still with thee shall stay. When thou reviewest this, thou dost review The very part was consecrate to thee: The earth can have but earth, which is his due; My […]...
22. Rain Has Fallen All the Day Rain has fallen all the day. O come among the laden trees: The leaves lie thick upon the way Of memories. Staying a little by the way Of memories shall we depart. Come, my beloved, where I may Speak to your heart....
23. Ignorant Before The Heavens Of My Life Ignorant before the heavens of my life, I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness Of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still. As if I didn’t exist. Do I have any Share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with Their pure effect? Does my blood’s ebb and flow Change with their changes? […]...
24. Psalm 143 Complaint of heavy afflictions in mind and body. My righteous Judge, my gracious God, Hear when I spread my hands abroad, And cry for succor from thy throne; O make thy truth and mercy known! Let judgment not against me pass; Behold, thy servant pleads thy grace: Should justice call us to thy bar, No […]...
25. Hymn 34 part 2 None excluded from hope. Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:24. Jesus, thy blessings are not few, Nor is thy gospel weak; Thy grace can melt the stubborn Jew, And bow th’ aspiring Greek. Wide as the reach of Satan’s rage Doth thy salvation flow; ‘Tis not confined to sex or age, The lofty or the low. […]...
26. The Greatness Of The World Through the world which the Spirit creative and kind First formed out of chaos, I fly like the wind, Until on the strand Of its billows I land, My anchor cast forth where the breeze blows no more, And Creation’s last boundary stands on the shore. I saw infant stars into being arise, For thousands […]...
27. Psalm 51 part 3 The backslider restored. O Thou that hear’st when sinners cry, Though all my crimes before thee lie, Behold them not with angry look, But blot their mem’ry from thy book. Create my nature pure within, And form my soul averse to sin: Let thy good Spirit ne’er depart, Nor hide thy presence from my heart. […]...
28. THE BLISS OF ABSENCE DRINK, oh youth, joy’s purest ray From thy loved one’s eyes all day, And her image paint at night! Better rule no lover knows, Yet true rapture greater grows, When far sever’d from her sight. Powers eternal, distance, time, Like the might of stars sublime, Gently rock the blood to rest, O’er my senses softness […]...
29. A Midnight Meditation HOW often have I said, “We may not grieve for the immortal dead.” And now, poor blenchèd heart, Thy ruddy hues all tremulous depart. Why be with fate at strife Because one passes on from death to life, Who may no more delay Rapt from our strange and pitiful dream away By one with ancient […]...
30. The Visitation (For Louise Imogen Guiney) There is a wall of flesh before the eyes Of John, who yet perceives and hails his King. It is Our Lady’s painful bliss to bring Before mankind the Glory of the skies. Her cousin feels her womb’s sweet burden rise And leap with joy, and she comes forth to sing, […]...
31. Psalm 17 v.13-15 S. M. Portion of saints and sinners. Arise, my gracious God, And make the wicked flee; They are but thy chastising rod, To drive thy saints to thee. Behold, the sinner dies, His haughty words are vain; Here in this life his pleasure lies, And all beyond is pain. Then let his pride advance, […]...
32. The Everlasting Battle WHEN in my shadowy hours I pierce the hidden heart of hopes and fears, They change into immortal joys or end in immemorial tears. Moytura’s battle still endures and in this human heart of mine The golden sun powers with the might of demon darkness intertwine. I think that every teardrop shed still flows from […]...
33. Psalm 84 part 2 God and his church; or, Grace and glory. Great God, attend, while Zion sings The joy that from thy presence springs: To spend one day with thee on earth Exceeds a thousand days of mirth. Might I enjoy the meanest place Within thy house, O God of grace, Not tents of ease, nor thrones of […]...
34. Delhi – A Re-visitation It’s akin to visiting my foster mother, today, That I am returning to you, mother city, after twenty years, I look at your broad, bereft blood-stained streets, mater, Through which emperors, prime ministers cavalcaded, In victory and defeat, through gates and triumphal arches, That murmur of the pains of your rape and impregnation. The sudden […]...
35. In the Holy Nativity of our Lord CHORUS Come we shepherds whose blest sight Hath met love’s noon in nature’s night; Come lift we up our loftier song And wake the sun that lies too long. To all our world of well-stol’n joy He slept, and dreamt of no such thing, While we found out heav’n’s fairer eye, And kiss’d the cradle […]...
36. 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 […]...
37. INSPIRATION FROM A VISITATION OF MY MUSE Memories bursting like tears or waves On some lonely Adriatic shore Beating again and again Threshings of green sea foam Flecked like the marble Leonardo Chipped for his ‘Moses’. And my tears came as suddenly In that dream, criss-crossed With memory and desire. Grandad Nicky had worked Down the pits for a pittance To bring […]...
38. HIS POETRY HIS PILLAR Only a little more I have to write: Then I’ll give o’er, And bid the world good-night. ‘Tis but a flying minute, That I must stay, Or linger in it: And then I must away. O Time, that cut’st down all, And scarce leav’st here Memorial Of any men that were; How many lie forgot […]...
39. To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady's Brother and Sister On Death’s domain intent I fix my eyes, Where human nature in vast ruin lies, With pensive mind I search the drear abode, Where the great conqu’ror has his spoils bestow’d; There there the offspring of six thousand years In endless numbers to my view appears: Whole kingdoms in his gloomy den are thrust, And […]...
40. Hymn 104 A state of nature and of grace. 1 Cor. 6:10,11. Not the malicious or profane, The wanton or the proud, Nor thieves, nor sland’rers, shall obtain Tue kingdom of our God. Surprising grace! and such were we By nature and by sin, Heirs of immortal misery, Unholy and unclean. But we are washed in Jesus’ […]...