Fair and young light! my guide to holy Grief and soul-curing melancholy; Whom living here I did still shun As sullen night-ravens do the sun, And led by my own foolish fire, Wander'd through darkness, dens, and mire. How am I now in love withal That I term'd then mere bonds and thrall, And to Thy name ''" which still I keep ''" Like the surviving turtle, weep! O bitter curs'd delights of men! Our souls' diseases first, and then Our bodies'; poisons that intreat With fatal sweetness, till we eat; How artfully do you destroy, That kill with smiles and seeming joy! If all the subtilties of vice Stood bare before unpractic'd eyes, And every act she doth commence Had writ down its sad consequence, Yet would not men grant their ill fate Lodged in those false looks, till too late. O holy, happy, healthy heaven, Where all is pure, where all is even, Plain, harmless, faithful, fair, and bright, But what Earth breathes against thy light! How blest had men been, had their sire Liv'd still in league with thy chaste fire; Nor made life through her long descents A slave to lustful elements! I did once read in an old book, Soil'd with many a weeping look, "That the seeds of foul sorrows be The finest things that are, to see." So that fam'd fruit, which made all die, Seem'd fair unto the woman's eye. If these supplanters in the shade Of Paradise could make man fade. How in this world should they deter This world, their fellow-murderer! And why then grieve we to be sent Home by our first fair punishment, Without addition to our woes And ling'ring wounds from weaker foes, Since that doth quickly freedom win, "For he that's dead is fled from sin"? O that I were winged and free, And quite undress'd just now with thee, Where freed souls dwell by living fountains On everlasting, spicy mountains! Alas! my God! take home Thy sheep; This world but laughs at those that weep. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 5. THE INQUIRY by THOMAS HARDY LAYS OF FRANCE: SONG (2) by MARIE DE FRANCE MODERN LOVE: 30 by GEORGE MEREDITH IN THIS AGE OF HARD TRYING, NONCHALANCE IS GOOD AND by MARIANNE MOORE SONNET: 144 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE |