Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)Departed Friends
| THEY are all gone into the world of light! | |
| And I alone sit lingering here! | |
| Their very memory is fair and bright, | |
| And my sad thoughts doth clear. | |
| It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast | 5 |
| Like stars upon some gloomy grove, | |
| Or those faint beams in which this hill is drest | |
| After the sun’s remove. | |
| I see them walking in an air of glory, | |
| Whose light doth trample on my days; | 10 |
| My days, which are at best but dull and hoary, | |
| Mere glimmering and decays. | |
| O holy Hope! and high Humility! | |
| High as the heavens above; | |
| These are your walks, and you have show’d them me | 15 |
| To kindle my cold love. | |
| Dear, beauteous death; the jewel of the just! | |
| Shining nowhere but in the dark; | |
| What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust, | |
| Could man outlook that mark! | 20 |
| He that hath found some fledged bird’s nest may know | |
| At first sight if the bird be flown; | |
| But what fair well or grove he sings in now, | |
| That is to him unknown. | |
| And yet, as angels in some brighter dreams | 25 |
| Call to the soul when man doth sleep, | |
| So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes | |
| And into glory peep. | |
| If a star were confined into a tomb, | |
| Her captive flames must needs burn there; | 30 |
| But when the hand that lock’d her up gives room, | |
| She’ll shine through all the sphere. | |
| O Father of eternal life, and all | |
| Created glories under Thee! | |
| Resume Thy spirit from this world of thrall | 35 |
| Into true liberty! | |
| Either disperse these mists, which blot and fill | |
| My perspective still as they pass; | |
| Or else remove me hence unto that hill, | |
| Where I shall need no glass. | 40 |