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| I LOVE, and have some cause to love, the earth,— | |
| She is my Maker’s creature, therefore good; | |
| She is my mother, for she gave me birth; | |
| She is my tender nurse, she gives me food: | |
| But what ’s a creature, Lord, compared with thee? | 5 |
| Or what ’s my mother or my nurse to me? | |
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| I love the air,—her dainty sweets refresh | |
| My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me; | |
| Her shrill-mouthed choir sustain me with their flesh, | |
| And with their polyphonian notes delight me: | 10 |
| But what ’s the air, or all the sweets that she | |
| Can bless my soul withal, compared to thee? | |
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| I love the sea,—she is my fellow-creature, | |
| My careful purveyor; she provides me store; | |
| She walls me round; she makes my diet greater; | 15 |
| She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore: | |
| But, Lord of oceans, when compared with thee, | |
| What is the ocean or her wealth to me? | |
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| To heaven’s high city I direct my journey, | |
| Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye; | 20 |
| Mine eye, by contemplation’s great attorney, | |
| Transcends the crystal pavement of the sky: | |
| But what is heaven, great God, compared to thee? | |
| Without thy presence, heaven ’s no heaven to me. | |
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| Without thy presence, earth gives no refection; | 25 |
| Without thy presence, sea affords no treasure; | |
| Without thy presence, air ’s a rank infection; | |
| Without thy presence, heaven ’s itself no pleasure: | |
| If not possessed, if not enjoyed in thee, | |
| What ’s earth, or sea, or air, or heaven to me? | 30 |
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| The highest honors that the world can boast | |
| Are subjects far too low for my desire; | |
| The brightest beams of glory are, at most, | |
| But dying sparkles of thy living fire; | |
| The loudest flames that earth can kindle be | 35 |
| But nightly glow-worms, if compared to thee. | |
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| Without thy presence, wealth is bags of cares; | |
| Wisdom but folly; joy, disquiet—sadness; | |
| Friendship is treason, and delights are snares; | |
| Pleasures but pain, and mirth but pleasing madness; | 40 |
| Without thee, Lord, things be not what they be, | |
| Nor have their being, when compared with thee. | |
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| In having all things, and not thee, what have I? | |
| Not having thee, what have my labors got? | |
| Let me enjoy but thee, what further crave I? | 45 |
| And having thee alone, what have I not? | |
| I wish nor sea nor land; nor would I be | |
| Possessed of heaven, heaven unpossessed of thee! | |
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