WHEN I survay the bright | |
Coelestiall spheare: | |
So rich with jewels hung, that night | |
Doth like an Æthiop bride appeare. | |
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My soule her wings doth spread | 5 |
And heaven-ward flies, | |
Th'Almighty's Mysteries to read | |
In the large volumes of the skies. | |
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For the bright firmament | |
Shootes forth no flame | 10 |
So silent, but is eloquent | |
In speaking the Creators name. | |
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No unregarded star | |
Contracts its light | |
Into so small a Charactar, | 15 |
Remov'd far from our humane sight: | |
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But if we stedfast looke, | |
We shall discerne | |
In it as in some holy booke, | |
How man may heavenly knowledge learne. | 20 |
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It tells the Conqueror, | |
That farre-stretcht powre | |
Which his proud dangers traffique for, | |
Is but the triumph of an houre. | |
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That from the farthest North, | 25 |
Some Nation may | |
Yet undiscovered issue forth, | |
And ore his new got conquest sway. | |
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Some Nation yet shut in | |
With hils of ice | 30 |
May be let out to scourge his sinne | |
'Till they shall equall him in vice. | |
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And then they likewise shall | |
Their ruine have, | |
For as your selves your Empires fall, | 35 |
And every Kingdome hath a grave. | |
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Thus those Coelestiall fires, | |
Though seeming mute, | |
The fallacie of our desires | |
And all the pride of life confute. | 40 |
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For they have watcht since first | |
The World had birth: | |
And found sinne in it selfe accurst, | |
And nothing permanent on earth. | |
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