Selected Works. George Herbert
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Название: Selected Works

Автор: George Herbert

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Зарубежные стихи

Серия:

isbn: 9781420971606

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ

      19. REPENTANCE.

      LORD, I confesse my sinne is great;

      Great is my sinne. Oh! gently treat

      With thy quick flow’r, thy momentarie bloom;

      Whose life still pressing

      Is one undressing,

      A steadie aiming at a tombe.

      Man’s age is two houres work, or three;

      Each day doth round about us see.

      Thus are we to delights: but we are all

      To sorrows old,

      If life be told

      From what life feeleth, Adam’s fall.

      Oh let thy height of mercie then

      Compassionate short-breathed men,

      Cut me not off for my most foul transgression:

      I do confesse

      My foolishnesse;

      My God, accept of my confession.

      Sweeten at length this bitter bowl,

      Which thou hast pour’d into my soul;

      Thy wormwood turn to health, windes to fair weather,

      For if thou stay,

      I and this day,

      As we did rise we die together.

      When thou for sinne rebukest man,

      Forthwith he waxeth wo and wan:

      Bitternesse fills our bowels; all our hearts

      Pine, and decay,

      And drop away,

      And carrie with them th’ other parts.

      But thou wilt sinne and grief destroy;

      That so the broken bones may joy,

      And tune together in a well-set song,

      Full of his praises

      Who dead men raises.

      Fractures well cur’d make us more strong.

      20. FAITH.

      LORD, how couldst thou so much appease

      Thy wrath for sinne, as when man’s sight was dimme,

      And could see little, to regard his ease,

      And bring by Faith all things to him?

      Hungrie I was, and had no meat:

      I did conceit a most delicious feast;

      I had it straight, and did as truly eat,

      As ever did a welcome guest.

      There is a rare outlandish root,

      Which when I could not get, I thought it here:

      That apprehension cur’d so well my foot,

      That I can walk to heav’n well neare.

      I owed thousands and much more:

      I did believe that I did nothing owe,

      And liv’d accordingly; my creditor

      Beleeves so too, and lets me go.

      Faith makes me any thing, or all

      That I beleeve is in the sacred storie:

      And where sinne placeth me in Adam’s fall.

      Faith sets me higher in his glorie.

      If I go lower in the book,

      What can be lower than the common manger?

      Faith puts me there with Him, who sweetly took

      Our flesh and frailtie, death and danger.

      If blisse had lien in art or strength,

      None but the wise or strong had gained it:

      Where now by Faith all arms are of a length;

      One size doth all conditions fit.

      A peasant may beleeve as much

      As a great clerk, and reach the highest stature.

      Thus dost thou make proud knowledge bend and

      While grace fills up uneven nature. [crouch,

      When creatures had no reall light

      Inherent in them, thou didst make the sunne,

      Impute a lustre, and allow them bright:

      And in this show, what Christ hath done.

      That which before was darkned clean

      With bushie groves, pricking the looker’s eie,

      Vanisht away, when Faith did change the scene:

      And then appeared a glorious skie.

      What though my bodie run to dust?

      Faith cleaves unto it, counting ev’ry grain,

      With an exact and most particular trust,

      Reserving all for flesh again.

      21. PRAYER.

      PRAYER, the church’s banquet, angel’s age,

      God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

      The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

      The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

      Engine against th’ Almightie, sinner’s towre,

      Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

      The six daies’ world-transposing in СКАЧАТЬ