Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MAN'S FALL AND RECOVERY, by HENRY VAUGHAN



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MAN'S FALL AND RECOVERY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Farewell you everlasting hills! I'm cast
Last Line: Of their red sea, a spring, I wash, they wade.
Alternate Author Name(s): Silurist


Farewell you everlasting hills! I'm cast
Here under clouds, where storms and tempests blast
This sullied flower
Robbed of your calm, nor can I ever make
Transplanted thus, one leaf of his t'awake,
But ev'ry hour
He sleeps and droops, and in this drowsy state
Leaves me a slave to passions, and my fate;
Besides I've lost
A train of lights, which in those sunshine days
Were my sure guides, and only with me stays
(Unto my cost)
One sullen beam, whose charge is to dispense
More punishment, than knowledge to my sense;
Two thousand years
I sojourned thus; at last Jeshurun's king
Those famous tables did from Sinai bring;
These swelled my fears,
Guilts, trespasses, and all this inward awe,
For sin took strength, and vigour from the Law.
Yet have I found
A plenteous way (thanks to that holy one!)
To cancel all that e'er was writ in stone,
His saving wound
Wept blood, that broke this adamant, and gave
To sinners confidence, life to the grave;
This makes me span
My father's journeys, and in one fair step
O'er all their pilgrimage and labours leap,
For God (made man)
Reduced th' extent of works of works of faith; so made
Of their Red Sea, a Spring, I wash, they wade.





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