Whether that soule which now comes up to you Fill any former ranke or make a new; Whether it take a name nam'd there before, Or be a name it selfe, and @3order@1 more Then was in heaven till now; (for may not hee Bee so, if every severall Angell bee A @3kind@1 alone?) What ever order grow Greater by him in heaven, wee doe not so. One of your orders growes by his accesse; But, by his losse grow all our @3orders@1 lesse; The name of @3Father, Master, Friend,@1 the name Of @3Subject@1 and of @3Prince,@1 in one are lame; Faire mirth is dampt, and conversation black, The @3household@1 widdow'd, and the @3garter@1 slack; The @3Chappell@1 wants an eare, @3Councell@1 a tongue; @3Story,@1 a theame; and @3Musicke@1 lacks a song; Blest @3order@1 that hath him! the losse of him Gangreend all @3Orders@1 here; all lost a limbe. Never made body such hast to confesse What a soule was; All former comelinesse Fled, in a minute, when the soule was gone, And, having lost that beauty, would have none; So fell our @3Monasteries,@1 in one instant growne Not to lesse houses, but, to heapes of stone; So sent this body that faire forme it wore, Unto the spheare of formes, and doth (before His soule shall fill up his sepulchrall stone,) Anticipate a Resurrection; For, as in his fame, now, his soule is here, So, in the forme thereof his bodie's there. And if, faire soule, not with first @3Innocents@1 Thy station be, but with the @3Poenitents,@1 (And, who shall dare to aske then when I am Dy'd scarlet in the blood of that pure Lambe, Whether that colour, which is scarlet then, Were black or white before in eyes of men?) When thou rememb'rest what sins thou didst finde Amongst those many friends now left behinde, And seest such sinners as they are, with thee Got thither by repentance, Let it bee Thy wish to wish all there, to wish them cleane; Wish @3him@1 a @3David, her@1 a @3Magdalen@1. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHARLOTTE CORDAY (REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL, JULY 17, 1793) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A SWEET LULLABY by NICHOLAS BRETON THE HOMERIC HEXAMETER [DESCRIBED AND EXEMPLIFIED] by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE HERMES OF THE WAYS by HILDA DOOLITTLE MY LITTLE DREAMS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON |