Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake
William Cowper (17311800)The Acquiescence of Pure Love
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Come, slay thy victim, and prepare Thy fires;
Plunged in the depths of mercy, let me die
The death which every soul that lives desires!
The time is long that I have languished here;
Yet all my thoughts Thy purposes obey,
With no reluctance, cheerful and sincere.
My life or death, appoint me pain or ease:
My soul perceives no real ill in pain;
In ease or health no real good she sees.
To choose Thy will, from selfish bias free;
And to prefer a cottage to a throne,
And grief to comfort, if it pleases Thee.
Die to the world, and live to self no more;
Suffer, unmoved, beneath the rudest hand,
As pleased when shipwrecked as when safe on shore.