Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William (Johnson) Cory. 18231892758. Mimnermus in Church
YOU promise heavens free from strife, | |
Pure truth, and perfect change of will; | |
But sweet, sweet is this human life, | |
So sweet, I fain would breathe it still; | |
Your chilly stars I can forgo, | 5 |
This warm kind world is all I know. | |
You say there is no substance here, | |
One great reality above: | |
Back from that void I shrink in fear, | |
And child-like hide myself in love: | 10 |
Show me what angels feel. Till then | |
I cling, a mere weak man, to men. | |
You bid me lift my mean desires | |
From faltering lips and fitful veins | |
To sexless souls, ideal quires, | 15 |
Unwearied voices, wordless strains: | |
My mind with fonder welcome owns | |
One dear dead friend’s remember’d tones. | |
Forsooth the present we must give | |
To that which cannot pass away; | 20 |
All beauteous things for which we live | |
By laws of time and space decay. | |
But O, the very reason why | |
I clasp them, is because they die. |