1. m
  2. 1600
  3. English
The Departure from Paradise

From “Paradise Lost,” Book XII.
IN either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld...

Poet: John Milton
The Gifts of God

        WHEN God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by,
Let us (said he) pour on him all we can:
Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie,
        Contract into a span.

        So strength first made a way;
Then beauty...

Poet: George Herbert
Self-Inquiry

Let not soft slumber close my eyes,
Before I ’ve recollected thrice
The train of action through the day!
Where have my feet chose out their way?
What have I learnt, where’er I ’ve been,
From all I have heard, from all I ’ve seen?
What know I more...

Poet: Isaac Watts
“Said I not so?”

Said I not so,—that I would sin no more?
    Witness, my God, I did;
Yet I am run again upon the score:
    My faults cannot be hid.

What shall I do?—make vows and break them still?
    ’T will be but labor lost;
My good cannot prevail against...

Poet: George Herbert
A True Lent

Is this a fast,—to keep
    The larder lean,
        And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?

Is it to quit the dish
    Of flesh, yet still
        To fill
The platter high with fish?

Is it to fast an hour,
    Or ragg’d...

Poet: Robert Herrick
From “The Church Porch”

Thou whose sweet youth and early hopes enhance
Thy rate and price, and mark thee for a treasure,
Hearken unto a Verser, who may chance
Rhyme thee to good, and make a bait of pleasure:
    A verse may find him who a sermon flies
    And turn delight into a...

Poet: George Herbert
Briefs

Water Turned INTO WINE
THE CONSCIOUS water saw its God and blushed.

THE WIDOW’S MITES
Two mites, two drops, yet all her house and land,
Fall from a steady heart, though trembling hand:
The other’s wanton wealth foams high, and brave;
The other cast...

Poet: Richard Crashaw
On his Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent
  Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
  And that one talent, which is death to hide,
  Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
  My true account, lest he...

Poet: John Milton
The Faithful Angel

From “Paradise Lost,” Book V.
        THE SERAPH Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example with...

Poet: John Milton
The Seed Growing Secretly

Dear, secret greenness! nurst below
    Tempests and winds and winter nights!
Vex not, that but One sees thee grow;
    That One made all these lesser lights.

What needs a conscience calm and bright
    Within itself, an outward test?
Who breaks...

Poet: Henry Vaughan