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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE CALL by HENRY VAUGHAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: COME MY HEART! COME MY HEAD
Last Line: THOSE BEASTS WERE CLEAN, THAT CHEWED THE CUD.

Come my heart! come my head
In sighs and tears!
'Tis now, since you have lain thus dead
Some twenty years;
Awake, awake,
Some pity take
Upon yourselves --
Who never wake to groan, nor weep,
Shall be sentenced for their sleep.

2

Do but see your sad estate,
How many sands
Have left us, while we careless sate
With folded hands;
What stock of nights,
Of days and years
In silent flights
Stole by our ears,
How ill have we ourselves bestowed
Whose suns are all set in a cloud?

3

Yet, come, and let's peruse them all;
And as we pass,
What sins on every minute fall
Score on the glass;
Then weigh and rate
Their heavy state
Until
The glass with tears you fill;
That done, we shall be safe and good,
Those beasts were clean, that chewed the cud.



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