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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
L'ENVOY, by HENRY VAUGHAN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: O the new world's new, quick'ning sun
Last Line: Who turned our sad captivity!
Alternate Author Name(s): Silurist
First Line: O the new world's new, quick'ning sun
Last Line: Who turned our sad captivity!
Alternate Author Name(s): Silurist
O the new world's new, quick'ning Sun!
Ever the same, and never done!
The seers of whose sacred light
Shall all be dressed in shining white,
And made conformable to his
Immortal shape, who wrought their bliss,
Arise, arise!
And like old clothes fold up these skies,
This long worn veil: then shine and spread
Thy own bright self over each head,
And through thy creatures pierce and pass
Till all becomes thy cloudless glass,
Transparent as the purest day
And without blemish or decay,
Fixed by thy spirit to a state
For evermore immaculate.
A state fit for the sight of thy
Immediate, pure and unveiled eye,
A state agreeing with thy mind,
A state thy birth and death designed:
A state for which thy creatures all
Travail and groan, and look and call.
O seeing thou hast paid our score,
Why should the curse reign any more?
But since thy number is as yet
Unfinished, we shall gladly sit
Till all be ready, that the train
May fully fit thy glorious reign.
Only, let not our haters brag,
Thy seamless coat is grown a rag,
Or that thy truth was not here known,
Because we forced thy judgements down.
Dry up their arms, who vex thy spouse,
And take the glory of thy house
To deck their own; then give thy saints
That faithful zeal, which neither faints
Nor wildly burns, but meekly still
Dares own the truth, and show the ill.
Frustrate those cancerous, close arts
Which cause solution in all parts,
And strike them dumb, who for mere words
Wound thy beloved, more than swords.
Dear Lord, do this! and then let grace
Descend, and hallow all the place.
Incline each hard heart to do good,
And cement us with thy son's blood,
That like true sheep, all in one fold
We may be fed, and one mind hold.
Give watchful spirits to our guides!
For sin (like water) hourly glides
By each man's door, and quickly will
Turn in, if not obstructed still.
Therefore write in their hearts thy law,
And let these long, sharp judgements awe
Their very thoughts, that by their clear
And holy lives, mercy may here
Sit regent yet, and blessings flow
As fast, as persecutions now.
So shall we know in war and peace
Thy service to be our sole ease,
With prostrate souls adoring thee,
Who turned our sad captivity!