| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
| |
| 50. An Hymn upon St. Bartholomew’s Day |
| By Thomas Traherne (?1636–1674) |
| |
| WHAT powerful Spirit lives within! | |
| What active Angel doth inhabit here! | |
| What heavenly light inspires my skin, | |
| Which doth so like a Deity appear! | |
| A living Temple of all ages, I | 5 |
| Within me see | |
| A Temple of Eternity! | |
| All Kingdoms I descry | |
| In me. | |
| |
| An inward Omnipresence here | 10 |
| Mysteriously like His within me stands, | |
| Whose knowledge is a Sacred Sphere | |
| That in itself at once includes all lands. | |
| There is some Angel that within me can | |
| Both talk and move, | 15 |
| And walk and fly and see and love, | |
| A man on earth, a man | |
| Above. | |
| |
| Dull walls of clay my Spirit leaves, | |
| And in a foreign Kingdom doth appear, | 20 |
| This great Apostle it receives, | |
| Admires His works and sees them, standing here, | |
| Within myself from East to West I move | |
| As if I were | |
| At once a Cherubim and Sphere, | 25 |
| Or was at once above | |
| And here. | |
| |
| The Soul’s a messenger whereby | |
| Within our inward Temple we may be | |
| Even like the very Deity | 30 |
| In all the parts of His Eternity. | |
| O live within and leave unwieldy dross! | |
| Flesh is but clay! | |
| O fly my Soul and haste away | |
| To Jesus’ Throne or Cross! | 35 |
| Obey! | |
|
|
