Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONG UPON THE BLEEDING CRUCIFIX, by RICHARD CRASHAW


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONG UPON THE BLEEDING CRUCIFIX, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Jesu, no more, it is full tide
Last Line: The well of living waters, lord, till now.
Variant Title(s): On The Bleeding Crucified Lord;upon The Bleeding Crucifix. A Song;on The Bleeding Wounds Of Our Crucified Lord
Subject(s): Crucifixion; Jesus Christ - Crucifixion


I.
Jesu, no more! It is full tide.
From thy head and from thy feet,
From thy hands and from thy side
All the purple Rivers meet.

II.
What need thy fair head bear a part
In showres, as if thine eyes had none?
What need They help to drown thy heart,
That strives in torrents of it's own?

III.
Thy restlesse feet now cannot goe
For us and our eternall good,
As they were ever wont. What though?
They swimme. Alas, in their own floud.

IV.
Thy hands to give, thou canst not lift;
Yet will thy hand still giving be.
It gives but o, it self's the gift.
It gives though bound; though bound 'tis free.

V.
But o thy side, thy deep-digg'd side!
That hath a double Nilus going.
Nor ever was the pharian tide
Half so fruitful, half so flowing.

VI.
No hair so small, but payes his river
To this red sea of thy blood
Their little channells can deliver
Somthing to the Generall floud.

VII.
But while I speak, whither are run
All the rivers nam'd before?
I counted wrong. There is but one;
But o that one is one all ore.

VIII.
Rain-swoln rivers may rise proud,
Bent all to drown and overflow.
But when indeed all's overflow'd
They themselves are drowned too.

IX.
This thy blood's deluge, a dire chance
Dear LORD to thee, to us is found
A deluge of Deliverance;
A deluge least we should be drown'd.

N'ere wast thou in a sense so sadly true,
The WELL of living WATERS, Lord, till now.





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