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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ROBIN REDBREAST by MOTHER GOOSE THE PHILOSOPHER TOAD by REBECCA S. REED NICHOLS THE CHILD ALONE: 7. THE LAND OF STORY-BOOKS by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON STARTING FROM PAUMANOK by WALT WHITMAN TO A SKYLARK (1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ODE TO WORK by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS ON THE BACKWARDNESS OF THE SPRING 1771 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |