Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Giles Fletcher (1588?1623)Earth and Heaven
GAZE but upon the house where man embow’rs: | |
With flow’rs and rushes pavèd is his way, | |
Where all the creatures are his servitors, | |
The winds do sweep his chambers every day, | |
And clouds do wash his rooms, the ceiling gay | 5 |
Starred aloft the gilded knobs embrave: | |
If such a house God to another gave, | |
How shine those glittering courts He for Himself will have! | |
And if a sullen cloud, as sad as night, | |
In which the sun may be embodied, | 10 |
Depur’d of all his dross we see so white, | |
Burning in melted gold his watery head, | |
Or round with ivory edges silvered: | |
What lustre super-excellent will HE | |
Lighten on those that shall His sunshine see, | 15 |
In that all-glorious court in which all glories be? | |