Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE STONE, by HENRY VAUGHAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE STONE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have it now
Last Line: As one than dust more vile and vain.
Alternate Author Name(s): Silurist
Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology


I have it now:
But where to act, that none shall know,
Where I shall have no cause to fear
An eye or ear,
What man will show?
If nights, and shades, and secret rooms,
Silent as tombs,
Will nor conceal nor assent to
My dark designs, what shall I do?
Man I can bribe, and woman will
Consent to any gainful ill,
But these dumb creatures are so true,
No gold nor gifts can them subdue.
Hedges have ears, said the old sooth,
And ev'ry bush is something's booth;
This cautious fools mistake, and fear
Nothing but man, when ambushed there.

But I (alas!)
Was shown one day in a strange glass
That busy commerce kept between
God and his Creatures, though unseen.

They hear, see, speak,
And into loud discoveries break,
As loud as blood. Not that God needs
Intelligence, whose spirit feeds
All things with life, before whose eyes,
Hell and all hearts stark naked lies.
But he that judgeth as he hears,
He that accuseth none, so steers
His righteous course, that though he knows
All that man doth, conceals or shows,
Yet will not he by his own light
(Though both all-seeing and all right)
Condemn men; but will try them by
A process, which ev'n man's own eye
Must needs acknowledge to be just.
Hence sand and dust
Are shaked for witnesses, and stones
Which some think dead, shall all at once
With one attesting voice detect
Those secret sins we least suspect.
For know, wild men, that when you err
Each thing turns Scribe and Register,
And in obedience to his Lord,
Doth your most private sins record.

The Law delivered to the Jews,
Who promised much, but did refuse
Performance, will for that same deed
Against them by a stone proceed;
Whose substance, though 'tis hard enough,
Will prove their hearts more stiff and tough.
But now, since God on himself took
What all mankind could never brook,
If any (for he all invites)
His easy yoke rejects or slights,
The Gospel then (for 'tis his word
And not himself shall judge the world)
Will by loose dust that man arraign,
As one than dust more vile and vain.





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