Robert Bridges, ed. (1844–1930). The Spirit of Man: An Anthology. 1916. | | | | From Dies Irae |
Richard Crashaw (1612?–1649) |
| | | .. O, 1 that Fire! before whose face | |
| Heav’n and earth shall find no place: | |
| O, those Eyes! whose angry light | |
| Must be the day of that dread Night … | |
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| But Thou giv’st leave, dread Lord, that we | 5 |
| Take shelter from Thyself in Thee; | |
| And with the wings of thine own dove | |
| Fly to thy sceptre of soft love. | |
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| Dear, remember in that day | |
| Who was the cause Thou cam’st this way: | 10 |
| Thy sheep was stray’d, and Thou wouldst be | |
| Even lost Thyself in seeking me! | |
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| Shall all that labour, all that cost | |
| Of love, and ev’n that loss, be lost? | |
| And this lov’d soul judg’d worth no less | 15 |
| Than all that way and weariness?.. | |
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| O, when thy last frown shall proclaim | |
| The flocks of goats to folds of flame, | |
| And all thy lost sheep found shall be, | |
| Let ‘Come ye blessed’ then call me! | 20 |
| | | Note 1. Crashaw. From his version of the Dies Irae in ‘Sacred Poems’, 1652. The conceits in this extract do not lower the passion. [back] | | |
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