Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Henry Vaughan. 16211695362. The Retreat
HAPPY those early days, when I | |
Shin’d in my Angel-infancy! | |
Before I understood this place | |
Appointed for my second race, | |
Or taught my soul to fancy aught | 5 |
But a white celestial thought: | |
When yet I had not walk’d above | |
A mile or two from my first Love, | |
And looking back—at that short space— | |
Could see a glimpse of His bright face: | 10 |
When on some gilded cloud, or flow’r, | |
My gazing soul would dwell an hour, | |
And in those weaker glories spy | |
Some shadows of eternity: | |
Before I taught my tongue to wound | 15 |
My Conscience with a sinful sound, | |
Or had the black art to dispense | |
A several sin to ev’ry sense, | |
But felt through all this fleshly dress | |
Bright shoots of everlastingness. | 20 |
O how I long to travel back, | |
And tread again that ancient track! | |
That I might once more reach that plain | |
Where first I left my glorious train; | |
From whence th’ enlightned spirit sees | 25 |
That shady City of Palm-trees. | |
But ah! my soul with too much stay | |
Is drunk, and staggers in the way! | |
Some men a forward motion love, | |
But I by backward steps would move; | 30 |
And when this dust falls to the urn, | |
In that state I came, return. |