Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Richard Crashaw (1613?1640)S. Mary Magdalene
NOT in the evening’s eyes | |
When they red with weeping are | |
For the sun that dies | |
Sits sorrow with a face so fair: | |
Nowhere but here did ever meet | 5 |
Sweetness so sad, sadness so sweet. | |
When Sorrow would be seen | |
In her brightest majesty | |
(For she is a queen), | |
Then is she dress’d by none but thee. | 10 |
Then, and only then, she wears | |
Her proudest pearls, I mean thy tears. | |
The dew no more will weep, | |
The primrose’s pale cheek to deck; | |
The dew no more will sleep, | 15 |
Nuzzled in the lily’s neck: | |
Much rather would it be thy tear, | |
And leave them both to tremble here. | |