Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, INVOCATION TO HEALTH, by CYNTHIA TAGGART


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INVOCATION TO HEALTH, by                    
First Line: O health, thy succouring aid extend
Last Line: Leave me not thus to die!
Subject(s): Health


O HEALTH, thy succouring aid extend
While low, with bleeding heart, I bend,
And on thine every means attend,
And sue with streaming eyes;
But more remote thou fliest away,
The humbler I thine influence pray,
And expectation dies.

Twice three long years of life have gone,
Since thy loved presence was withdrawn,
And I to grief resigned;
Laid on the couch of lingering pain,
Where stern disease's torturing chain
Has every limb confined.

And separate from the household band,
Disconsolate and lone,
With no sweet converse's social charm
One pain imperious to disarm,
Or quell the rising moan;
I lie in hopeless doom to grieve,
While no kind office can relieve,
Nor can I sustenance receive
But from another's hand.

While anguish veils the body o'er,
And balmy sleep is known no more,
And every thought that thrills the brain
Gives frantic energy to pain,
And the cold dewdrops copious drain
Through every opening, rending pore.

Health! wilt thou not, for the black stream
That bears keen poison through the veins,
A cordial swift prepare?
Bring back their own bright crimson glow,
And the true circulating flow,
And mitigate despair?

Once more my pleadings I renew,
And with my parting breath I sue,
Goaded by potent pain,
By all the pangs of wasting life,
By gasping nature's chilling strife,
To gain one lingering view
Of thy fair aspect, mildly sweet,
And kiss from off thine airy feet
The healing drops of dew.

O bathe my burning temples now,
And cool the scorching of my brow,
And light the rayless eye;
My strength revive with thine own might
And with thy footsteps firm and light,
O bear me to thy radiant height,
Where, soft reposing, lie
Mild peace, and happiness, and joy,
And Nature's sweets that never cloy,
Unmixed with direful pain's alloy;
Leave me not thus to die!





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