The poetical works of Thomas Traherne faithfully reprinted from the author's original manuscript together with Poems of Felicity reprinted from the Burney manuscript and Poems from Various Sources: Edited with preface and notes by Gladys I. Wade |
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The City. |
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 | The poetical works of Thomas Traherne |  |
The City.
What Structures here among God's Works appear?
Such Wonders Adam ne'r did see
In Paradise among the Trees,
No Works of Art like these,
Nor Walls, nor Pinnacles, nor Houses were.
All these for me,
For me these Streets and Towers,
These stately Temples, and these solid Bowers,
My Father rear'd:
For me I thought they thus appear'd.
Such Wonders Adam ne'r did see
In Paradise among the Trees,
No Works of Art like these,
Nor Walls, nor Pinnacles, nor Houses were.
All these for me,
For me these Streets and Towers,
These stately Temples, and these solid Bowers,
My Father rear'd:
For me I thought they thus appear'd.
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The City, fill'd with Peeple, near me stood;
A Fabrick like a Court divine,
Of many Mansions bright and fair;
Wherin I could repair
To Blessings that were Common, Great, and Good:
Yet all did shine
As burnisht and as new
As if before none ever did them view:
They seem'd to me
Environ'd with Eternity.
A Fabrick like a Court divine,
Of many Mansions bright and fair;
Wherin I could repair
To Blessings that were Common, Great, and Good:
Yet all did shine
As burnisht and as new
As if before none ever did them view:
They seem'd to me
Environ'd with Eternity.
As if from Everlasting they had there
Been built, more gallant than if gilt
With Gold, they shew'd: Nor did I know
That they to Hands did ow
Themselvs. Immortal they did all appear
Till I knew Guilt.
As if the Publick Good
Of all the World for me had ever stood,
They gratify'd
Me, while the Earth they beautify'd.
Been built, more gallant than if gilt
With Gold, they shew'd: Nor did I know
That they to Hands did ow
Themselvs. Immortal they did all appear
Till I knew Guilt.
As if the Publick Good
Of all the World for me had ever stood,
They gratify'd
Me, while the Earth they beautify'd.
The living Peeple that mov'd up and down,
With ruddy Cheeks and sparkling Eys;
The Musick in the Churches, which
Were Angels Joys (tho Pitch
Defil'd me afterwards) as my chief crown
I then did prize:
These only I did lov
As do the blessed Hosts in Heven abov:
No other Pleasure
Had I, nor wish'd for other Treasure.
With ruddy Cheeks and sparkling Eys;
The Musick in the Churches, which
Were Angels Joys (tho Pitch
Defil'd me afterwards) as my chief crown
I then did prize:
These only I did lov
As do the blessed Hosts in Heven abov:
No other Pleasure
Had I, nor wish'd for other Treasure.
The Hevens were the richly studded Case
Which did my richer Wealth inclose;
No little privat Cabinet
In which my Gems to set
Did I contrive: I thought the whol Earth's face
At my Dispose:
No Confines did include
What I possest, no Limits there I view'd;
On evry side
All endless was which then I spy'd.
Which did my richer Wealth inclose;
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In which my Gems to set
Did I contrive: I thought the whol Earth's face
At my Dispose:
No Confines did include
What I possest, no Limits there I view'd;
On evry side
All endless was which then I spy'd.
'Tis Art that hath the late Invention found
Of shutting up in little Room
Ones Endless Expectations: Men
Have in a narrow Penn
Confin'd themselvs: Free Souls can know no Bound;
But still presume
That Treasures evry where
From Everlasting Hills must still appear,
And be to them
Joys in the New Jerusalem.
Of shutting up in little Room
Ones Endless Expectations: Men
Have in a narrow Penn
Confin'd themselvs: Free Souls can know no Bound;
But still presume
That Treasures evry where
From Everlasting Hills must still appear,
And be to them
Joys in the New Jerusalem.
We first by Nature all things boundless see;
Feel all illimited; and know
No Terms or Periods: But go on
Throughout the Endless Throne
Of God, to view His wide Eternity;
Ev'n here below
His Omnipresence we
Do pry into, that Copious Treasury.
Tho men have taught
To limit and to bound our Thought.
Feel all illimited; and know
No Terms or Periods: But go on
Throughout the Endless Throne
Of God, to view His wide Eternity;
Ev'n here below
His Omnipresence we
Do pry into, that Copious Treasury.
Tho men have taught
To limit and to bound our Thought.
Such Treasures as are to be valu'd more
Than those shut up in Chests and Tills,
Which are by Citizens exteem'd,
To me the Peeple seem'd:
The City doth encreas my glorious Store,
Which sweetly fills
With choice Variety
The Place wherin I see the same to be;
And strangely is
A Mansion or Tower of Bliss.
Than those shut up in Chests and Tills,
Which are by Citizens exteem'd,
To me the Peeple seem'd:
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Which sweetly fills
With choice Variety
The Place wherin I see the same to be;
And strangely is
A Mansion or Tower of Bliss.
Nor can the City such a Soul as mine
Confine; nor be my only Treasure:
I must see other Things to be
Of my Felicity
Concurrent Instruments, and all combine
To yeild me Pleasure.
And God, to gratify
This Inclination, helps me to descry
Beyond the Sky
More Wealth provided, and more high.
Confine; nor be my only Treasure:
I must see other Things to be
Of my Felicity
Concurrent Instruments, and all combine
To yeild me Pleasure.
And God, to gratify
This Inclination, helps me to descry
Beyond the Sky
More Wealth provided, and more high.
| The poetical works of Thomas Traherne | |