| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 4. I dye alive |
| By Robert Southwell (?1561–1595) |
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| O LIFE! what letts thee from a quicke decease? | |
| O death! what drawes thee from a present praye? | |
| My feast is done, my soule would be at ease, | |
| My grace is saide; O death! come take awaye. | |
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| I live, but such a life as ever dyes; | 5 |
| I dye, but such a death as never endes; | |
| My death to end my dying life denyes, | |
| And life my living death no whitt amends. | |
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| Thus still I dye, yet still I do revive; | |
| My living death by dying life is fedd; | 10 |
| Grace more then nature kepes my hart alive, | |
| Whose idle hopes and vayne desires are deade. | |
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| Not where I breath, but where I love, I live; | |
| Not where I love, but where I am, I die; | |
| The life I wish, must future glory give, | 15 |
| The deaths I feele in present daungers lye. | |
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