Sacred Poetry.

PART I.

Silex Scintillans :

1650.

WARD, and still in bonds, one day
I stole abroad;

It was high-Spring, and all the way
Primros'd, and hung with shade:

Blasted

Yet was it frost within;

The surly winds

my infant buds, and sinne Like clouds ecclips'd my mind.

2.

Storm'd thus, I straight perceiv'd my Spring
Meere stage and show;

My walke a monstrous, mountain'd thing,
Rough-cast with rocks, and snow;
And as a pilgrim's eye,

Far from reliefe,

Measures the melancholy skye,

Then drops, and rains for griefe:

3.

So sigh'd I upwards still; at last
'Twixt steps and falls,

I reach'd the pinnacle, where plac'd
I found a paire of scales;

I tooke them up, and layd

.1

In th' one, late paines ;1

The other, smoake and pleasures weigh'd,

But prov'd the heavier graines.

4.

With that, some cryed, 'Away'; straight I
Obey'd, and led

Full East, a faire, fresh field could spy;
Some call'd it, Jacob's Bed ;2
A virgin-soile, which no

Rude feet ere trod;

Where-since He stept there-only go
Prophets, and friends of God.

5.

Here I repos'd; but scarse well set,
A grove descryed

Not the pains following late though surely on evil pleasures, but 'pains' only lately taken to work out a holier life. G.

2 Query-a mystical Beth-el, 'none other but the house of God and the gate of heaven'? (Genesis xxviii. 17).

Of stately height, whose branches met
And mixt, on every side;

I entred, and once in,

-Amaz'd to see't

Found all was chang'd, and a new Spring
Did all my senses greet.

6.

The unthrift' sunne shot vitall gold,
A thousand peeces;

And heaven, its azure did unfold
Chequer'd with snowie fleeces;
The aire was all in spice,
And every bush

A garland wore: Thus fed my eyes,
But all the Earth3 lay hush:

7.

Only a little fountain lent

Some use for eares,

And on the dumbe shades language spent,
The musick of her teares ;3

1= lavish, now spend-thrift. Shakespeare uses it, e.g. "unthrift love." (Merchant of Venice, v.

1.) G.

2 I have ventured to substitute Earth' for 'Eare',

regarding the latter as a misprint. See context. G.

3 Cf. "Vanity of Spirit" onward, 'shrill spring