Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LABYRINTH, by HENRY KING (1592-1669)


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THE LABYRINTH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Life is a crooked labyrinth, and we
Last Line: Those never clouded, nor that overcast.
Subject(s): Life


LIFE is a crooked labyrinth, and we
Are daily lost in that obliquity.
'Tis a perplexed circle, in whose round
Nothing but sorrows and new sins abound.
How is the faint impression of each good
Drown'd in the vicious channel of our blood?
Whose ebbs and tides by their vicissitude
Both our great Maker and ourselves delude.

O wherefore is the most discerning eye
Unapt to make its own discovery?
Why is the clearest and best judging mind
In her own ills' prevention dark and blind?
Dull to advise, to act precipitate,
We scarce think what to do, but when too late.
Or if we think, that fluid thought, like seed,
Rots there to propagate some fouler deed.
Still we repent and sin, sin and repent;
We thaw and freeze, we harden and relent.
Those fires, which cool'd to-day, the morrow's heat
Rekindles. Thus frail nature does repeat
What she unlearnt, and still, by learning on,
Perfects her lesson of confusion.

Sick soul! what cure shall I for thee devise,
Whose leprous state corrupts all remedies?
What medicine or what cordial can be got
For thee, who poison'st thy best antidote?
Repentance is thy bane, since thou by it
Only reviv'st the fault thou didst commit.
Nor griev'st thou for the past, but art in pain,
For fear thou mayst not act it o'er again.
So that thy tears, like water spilt on lime,
Serve not to quench, but to advance the crime.

My blessed Saviour! unto thee I fly
For help against this homebred tyranny.
Thou canst true sorrows in my soul imprint,
And draw contrition from a breast of flint.
Thou canst reverse this labyrinth of sin,
My wild affects and actions wander in.
O guide my faith! and, by thy grace's clew,
Teach me to hunt that kingdom at the view
Where true joys reign, which like their day shall last;
Those never clouded, nor that overcast.





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