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Home  »  Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse  »  At Home in Heaven

Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By Robert Southwell (1561?–1595)

At Home in Heaven

 
FRAIL soul! how long shall veils thy graces shroud?
  How long shall this exile withhold thy right?
When will thy sun disperse his mortal cloud,
  And give thy glories scope to blaze their light?
Oh, that a star, more fit for angels’ eyes,        5
Should pine in earth, not shine above the skies!
 
Thy ghostly beauty offer’d force to God,
  It chainèd Him in links of tender love;
It won His will with man to make abode;
  It stay’d His sword, and did His wrath remove:        10
It made the rigour of His justice yield,
And crownèd Mercy empress of the field.
 
This brought Him from the ranks of heavenly quires
  Into this vale of tears and cursèd soil;
From flowers of grace into a world of briars,        15
  From life to death, from bliss to baleful toil.
This made Him wander in our pilgrim weed,
And taste our torments to relieve our need.