Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DIVINE POEMS: ANTEROS, by JOHN HALL (1627-1656)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DIVINE POEMS: ANTEROS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Frown on me, shades! And let not day
Last Line: In my celestial diadem.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hall Of Durham, John
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


FROWN on me, shades! and let not day
Swell in a needle-pointed ray
To make discoveries! wrap me here
In folds of night, and do not fear
The sun's approach: so shall I find
A greater light possess my mind.
O, do not (Children of the Spring!)
Hither your charming odours bring,
Nor with your painted smiles devise
To captivate my wandering eyes;
Th' have stray'd too much, but now begin
Wholly t' employ themselves within.
What do I now on earth? O, why
Do not these members upward fly,
And force a room among the stars,
And there my greaten'd self disperse
As wide as thought? What do I here,
Spread on soft down of roses? There
That spangled curtain, which so wide
Dilates its lustre, shall me hide.
Mount up, low thoughts, and see what sweet
Reposance heaven can beget:
Could ye the least compliance frame,
How should I all become one flame,
And melt in purest fires! O, how
My warmed heart would sweetly glow,
And waste those dregs of earth that stay
Glued to it; then it might away,
And still ascend, till that it stood
Within the centre of all good;
There press'd, not overwhelm'd, with joys,
Under its burthen fresh arise;
There might it lose itself, and then
With losing find itself again;
There might it triumph, and yet be
Still in a blest captivity.
There might it -- O, why do I speak,
Whose humble thoughts are far too weak
To apprehend small notions? Nay,
Angels are nonplus'd, though the day
Breaks clearer on them, and they run
In apogees more near the sun.
But, oh! what pulls me? How I shall
In the least moment headlong fall;
Now I'm on earth again not dight,
As formerly in springing light,
The selfsame objects please, that I
Did even now, as base, deny.
Now what a powerful influence
Has beauty on my slavish sense:
How rob I Nature, that I may
Her wealth upon my cheek display!
How doth the giant Honour seem
Well statur'd in my fond esteem;
And gold, that bane of men, I call
Not poisonous now, but cordial:
Since that the world's great eye, the Sun,
Has not disdain'd to make't his own.
Now every passion sways, and I
Tamely admit their tyranny;
Only with numerous sighings say,
The basest thing is breathing clay.
But sure these vapours will not e'er
Draw curtains o'er my hemisphere.
Let it clear up, and welcome day
Its lustre once again display.
Thou (O, my Sun!) awhile may'st lie
As intercepted from mine eye,
But Love shall fright those clouds, and thou
Into my purged eyes shalt flow,
Which (melted by my inward fires,
Which shall be blown by strong desires)
Consuming into tears, shall feel
Each tear into a pearl congeal,
And every pearl shall be a stem
In my celestial diadem.





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