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

By Thomas Campion (?–1619)

The Christian Stoic


THE MAN 1 of life upright,
Whose guiltless heart is free
From all dishonest deeds,
Or thought of vanity;

The man whose silent days	5
In harmless joys are spent,
Whom hopes cannot delude
Nor sorrow discontent:

That man needs neither towers
Nor armour for defence,	10
Nor secret vaults to fly
From thunder’s violence:

He only can behold
With unaffrighted eyes
The horrors of the deep	15
And terrors of the skies.

Thus scorning all the cares
That fate or fortune brings,
He makes the heaven his book,
His wisdom heavenly things,	20

Good thoughts his only friends,
His wealth a well-spent age,
The earth his sober inn
And quiet pilgrimage.

Note 1. The name of Campion was unknown to this generation, although famous in his own, until first Mr Arber, and then Mr Bullen, reprinted the verses from his Song-Books. His praise has been well expressed in the line that Peele addressed to him:—

	“Thou
	That richly cloth’st conceit with well-made words.”

His thought is luminous and his verse transparent. He is not perhaps quite so happy in religious as in love poetry. [back]

Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD