A Collection of Miscellanies Consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses & Letters, Occasionally Written. By John Norris ... The Second Edition Corrected |
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Seraphic Love.
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 | A Collection of Miscellanies |  |
Seraphic Love.
I
'Tis true, Frail Beauty, I did once resignTo thy imperious Charms this Heart of mine:
There didst thou undisturb'd thy Scepter sway,
And I methought was pleas'd t' obey.
Thou seem'st so lovely, so divine,
With such sweet Graces didst thou shine,
Thou entertain'st my Amorous sense
With such Harmonious excellence,
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With vain, with impious Idolatry,
Ador'd that Star which was to lead me to the Deity.
II
But now, thou soft Enchantress of the mind,Farewel, a change, a mighty change I find;
The Empire of my Heart thou must resign,
For I can be no longer thine.
A Nobler, a Diviner Guest,
Has took possession of my Breast;
He has, and must engross it all,
And yet the room is still too small.
In vain you tempt my Heart to rove,
A fairer Object now my Soul does move,
It must be all Devotion, what before was Love.
III
Through Contemplation's Optics I have seenHim who is Fairer than the Sons of men:
The Source of good, the light Archetypall,
Beauty in the Original.
The fairest of ten thousand, He,
Proportion all and Harmony.
All Mortal Beauty's but a ray
Of his bright ever-shining day;
A little feeble twinkling Star,
Which now the Sun's in place must disappear;
There is but One that's Good, there is but One that's Fair.
IV
To thee, thou only Fair, my Soul aspiresWith Holy Breathings, languishing desires.
To thee m' inamour'd, panting Heart does move,
By Efforts of Ecstatic Love.
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Refresh my intellectual sight!
Tho broken, and strain'd through a Skreen
Of envious Flesh that stands between!
When shall m' imprison'd Soul be free,
That she thy Native uncorrected Light may see,
And gaze upon thy Beatifick Face to all Eternity?
| A Collection of Miscellanies | |