Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (133 page)

Open and naked of offence,
Man’s made of mercy, soul, and sense:
 
God armed the snail and wilk;
Be good to him that pulls thy plough;
  
250
Due food and care, due rest allow
 
For her that yields thee milk.

Rise up before the hoary head,
And God’s benign commandment dread,
 
Which says thou shalt not die:
  
255
‘Not as I will, but as Thou wilt,’
Prayed He, whose conscience knew no guilt;
 
With Whose blessed pattern vie.

Use all thy passions! love is thine,
And joy and jealousy divine;
  
260
 
Thine hope’s eternal fort,
And care thy leisure to disturb,
With fear concupiscence to curb,
 
And rapture to transport.

Act simply, as occasion asks;
  
265
Put mellow wine in seasoned casks;
 
Till not with ass and bull:
Remember thy baptismal bond;
Keep thy commixtures foul and fond,
 
Nor work thy flax with wool.
  
270

Distribute; pay the Lord His tithe,
And make the widow’s heart-strings blithe;
 
Resort with those that weep:
As you from all and each expect,
For all and each thy love direct,
  
275
 
And render as you reap.

The slander and its bearer spurn,
And propagating praise sojourn
 
To make thy welcome last;
Turn from old Adam to the New:
  
280
By hope futurity pursue:
 
Look upwards to the past.

Control thine eye, salute success,
Honour the wiser, happier bless,
 
And for their neighbour feel;
  
285
Grutch not of mammon and his leaven,
Work emulation up to heaven
 
By knowledge and by zeal.

O David, highest in the list
Of worthies, on God’s ways insist,
  
290
 
The genuine word repeat!
Vain are the documents of men,
And vain the flourish of the pen
 
That keeps the fool’s conceit.

Praise above all — for praise prevails;
  
295
Heap up the measure, load the scales,
 
And good to goodness add:
The generous soul her Saviour aids,
But peevish obloquy degrades;
 
The Lord is great and glad.
  
300

For Adoration all the ranks
Of Angels yield eternal thanks,
 
And David in the midst:
With God’s good poor, which, last and least
In man’s esteem, Thou to Thy feast,
  
305
 
O Blessed Bridegroom, bidst.

For Adoration seasons change,
And order, truth, and beauty range,
 
Adjust, attract, and fill:
The grass the polyanthus checks;
  
310
And polished porphyry reflects,
 
By the descending rill.

Rich almonds colour to the prime
For Adoration; tendrils climb,
 
And fruit-trees pledge their gems;
  
315
And Ivis, with her gorgeous vest,
Builds for her eggs her cunning nest,
 
And bell-flowers bow their stems.

With vinous syrup cedars spout;
From rocks pure honey gushing out,
  
320
 
For Adoration springs:
All scenes of painting crowd the map
Of nature; to the mermaid’s pap
 
The scalèd infant clings.

The spotted ounce and playsome cubs
  
325
Run rustling ‘mong the flowering shrubs.
 
And lizards feed the moss;
For Adoration beasts embark,
While waves upholding halcyon’s ark
 
No longer roar and toss.
  
330

While Israel sits beneath his fig,
With coral root and amber sprig
 
The weaned adventurer sports;
Where to the palm the jasmine cleaves,
For Adoration ‘mong the leaves
  
335
 
The gale his peace reports.

Increasing days their reign exalt,
Nor in the pink and mottled vault
 
The opposing spirits tilt;
And by the coasting reader spied,
  
340
The silverlings and crusions glide
 
For Adoration gilt.

For Adoration ripening canes,
And cocoa’s purest milk detains
 
The western pilgrim’s staff;
  
345
Where rain in clasping boughs enclosed,
And vines with oranges disposed,
 
Embower the social laugh.

Now labour his reward receives,
For Adoration counts his sheaves,
  
350
 
To peace, her bounteous prince;
The nect’rine his strong tint imbibes,
And apples of ten thousand tribes,
 
And quick peculiar quince.

The wealthy crops of whitening rice
  
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‘Mongst thyine woods and groves of spice,
 
For Adoration grow;
And, marshalled in the fencèd land,
The peaches and pomegranates stand,
 
Where wild carnations blow.
  
360

The laurels with the winter strive;
The crocus burnishes alive
 
Upon the snow-clad earth;
For Adoration myrtles stay
To keep the garden from dismay,
  
365
 
And bless the sight from dearth.

The pheasant shows his pompous neck;
And ermine, jealous of a speck,
 
With fear eludes offence:
The sable, with his glossy pride,
  
370
For Adoration is described,
 
Where frosts the waves condense.

The cheerful holly, pensive yew,
And holy thorn, their trim renew;
 
The squirrel hoards his nuts;
  
375
All creatures batten o’er their stores,
And careful nature all her doors
 
For Adoration shuts.

For Adoration, David’s Psalms,
Lift up the heart to deeds of alms;
  
380
 
And he, who kneels and chants,
Prevails his passions to control,
Finds meat and medicine to the soul,
 
Which for translation pants.

For Adoration, beyond match,
  
385
The scholar bullfinch aims to catch
 
The soft flute’s ivory touch:
And, careless, on the hazel spray
The daring redbreast keeps at bay
 
The damsel’s greedy clutch.
  
390

For Adoration, in the skies,
The Lord’s philosopher espies
 
The dog, the ram, and rose;
The planets’ ring, Orion’s sword;
Nor is his greatness less adored
  
395
 
In the vile worm that glows.

For Adoration, on the strings
The western breezes work their wings,
 
The captive ear to soothe —
Hark!’tis a voice — how still, and small —
400
That makes the cataracts to fall,
 
Or bids the sea be smooth!

For Adoration, incense comes
From bezoar, and Arabian gums,
 
And from the civet’s fur:
  
405
But as for prayer, or e’er it faints,
Far better is the breath of saints
 
Than galbanum or myrrh.

For Adoration, from the down
Of damsons to the anana’s crown,
  
410
 
God sends to tempt the taste;
And while the luscious zest invites
The sense, that in the scene delights,
 
Commands desire be chaste.

For Adoration, all the paths
  
415
Of grace are open, all the baths
 
Of purity refresh;
And all the rays of glory beam
To deck the man of God’s esteem
 
Who triumphs o’er the flesh.
  
420

For Adoration, in the dome
Of CHRIST, the sparrows find a home;
 
And on his olives perch:
The swallow also dwells with thee
O Man of GOD’S humility,
  
425
 
Within his Saviour’s Church.

Sweet is the dew that falls betimes,
And drops upon the leafy limes;
 
Sweet, Hermon’s fragrant air:
Sweet is the lily’s silver bell,
  
430
And sweet the wakeful tapers’ smell
 
That watch for early prayer.

Sweet the young nurse, with love intense,
Which smiles o’er sleeping innocence;
 
Sweet when the lost arrive:
  
435
Sweet the musician’s ardour beats,
While his vague mind’s in quest of sweets
 
The choicest flowers to hive.

Sweeter, in all the strains of love,
The language of thy turtle-dove,
  
440
 
Paired to thy swelling chord;
Sweeter, with every grace endued,
The glory of thy gratitude.
 
Respired unto the Lord.

Strong is the horse upon his speed;
  
445
Strong in pursuit the rapid glede,
 
Which makes at once his game:
Strong the tall ostrich on the ground;
Strong through the turbulent profound
 
Shoots Xiphias to his aim.
  
450

Strong is the lion — like a coal
His eyeball — like a bastion’s mole
 
His chest against the foes:
Strong the gier-eagle on his sail,
Strong against tide the enormous whale
  
455
 
Emerges as he goes.

But stronger still in earth and air,
And in the sea, the man of prayer,
 
And far beneath the tide:
And in the seat to faith assigned,
  
460
Where ask is have, where seek is find,
 
Where knock is open wide.

Beauteous the fleet before the gale;
Beauteous the multitudes in mail,
 
Ranked arms, and crested heads;
  
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Beauteous the garden’s umbrage mild
Walk, water, meditated wild,
 
And all the bloomy beds.

Beauteous the moon full on the lawn;
And beauteous when the veil’s withdrawn,
  
470
 
The virgin to her spouse:
Beauteous the temple, decked and filled,
When to the heaven of heavens they build
 
Their heart-directed vows.

Beauteous, yea beauteous more than these,
  
475
The Shepherd King upon his knees,
 
For his momentous trust;
With wish of infinite conceit,
For man, beast, mute, the small and great,
 
And prostrate dust to dust.
  
480

Precious the bounteous widow’s mite;
And precious, for extreme delight,
 
The largess from the churl:
Precious the ruby’s blushing blaze,
And alba’s blest imperial rays,
  
485
 
And pure cerulean pearl.

Precious the penitential tear;
And precious is the sigh sincere;
 
Acceptable to God:
And precious are the winning flowers,
  
490
In gladsome Israel’s feast of bowers,
 
Bound on the hallowed sod.

More precious that diviner part
Of David, even the Lord’s own heart
 
Great, beautiful, and new;
  
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In all things where it was intent,
In all extremes, in each event,
 
Proof — answering true to true.

Glorious the sun in mid career;
Glorious the assembled fires appear;
  
500
 
Glorious the comet’s train:
Glorious the trumpet and alarm;
Glorious the Almighty’s stretched-out arm;
 
Glorious the enraptured main: