Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THOUGHTS II, by THOMAS TRAHERNE


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THOUGHTS II, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A delicate and tender thought
Last Line: Within the soul as more divine and pure.
Subject(s): God


1

A delicate and tender thought
The quintessence is found of all He wrought.
It is the fruit of all His works,
Which we conceive,
Bring forth, and give,
Yea and in which the greater value lurks.
It is the fine and curious flower,
Which we return, and offer every hour:
So tender in our Paradise
That in a trice
It withers straight, and fades away,
If we but cease its beauty to display.

2

Why things so precious, should be made
So prone, so easy, and so apt to fade
It is not easy to declare.
But God would have
His creatures brave
And that too by their own continual care.
He gave them power every hour,
Both to erect, and to maintain a tower,
Which He far more in us doth prize
Than all the skies:
That we might offer it to Him,
And in our souls be like the seraphim.

3

That temple David did intend,
Was but a thought, and yet it did transcend
King Solomon's. A thought we know
Is that for which
God doth enrich
With joys even Heaven above, and earth below.
For that all objects might be seen
He made the orient azure and the green:
That we might in His works delight.
And that the sight
Of those His treasures might inflame
The soul with love to Him, He made the same.

4

This sight which is the glorious end
Of all His works, and which doth comprehend
Eternity, and time, and space,
Is far more dear,
And far more near
To Him, than all His glorious dwelling place.
It is a spiritual world within.
A living world, and nearer far of kin
To God, than that which first He made.
While that doth fade
This therefore ever shall endure,
Within the soul as more divine and pure.





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