Henry Vaughan (1621-1695). Come, Come! What Do I Here? William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1910. The Book of Restoration Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

Come, Come! What Do I Here?

By Henry Vaughan (1621–1695)


COME, come! What do I here?
Since he is gone
Each day is grown a dozen year
And each hour, one;
Come, come!	5
Cut off the sum:
By these soil’d tears!
Which only Thou
Know’st to be true,
Days are my fears.	10

There’s not a wind can stir,
Or beam pass by,
By straight I think, though far,
Thy hand is nigh.
Come, come!	15
Strike these lips dumb:
This restless breath,
That soils Thy name,
Will ne’er be tame
Until in death.	20

Perhaps some think a tomb
No house of store,
But a dark and seal’d up womb,
Which ne’er breeds more:
Come, come!	25
Such thoughts benumb:
But I would be
With Him I weep
Abed, and sleep,
To wake in Thee.	30