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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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VI
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VI

[Contentment is a sleepy thing!]

Contentment is a sleepy thing!
If it in Death alone must die;
A quiet Mind is worse than Poverty!
Unless it from Enjoyment spring!
That's Blessedness alone that makes a King!
Wherein the Joyes and Treasures are so great,
They all the powers of the Soul employ,
And fill it with a Work compleat,
While it doth all enjoy.

233

True Joyes alone Contentment do inspire,
Enrich Content, and make our Courage higher.
Content alone's a dead and silent Stone:
The real life of Bliss
Is Glory reigning in a Throne,
Where all Enjoyment is.
The Soul of Man is so inclin'd to see,
Without his Treasures no man's Soul can be,
Nor rest content Uncrown'd!
Desire and Love
Must in the height of all their Rapture move,
Where there is true Felicity.
Employment is the very life and ground
Of Life it self; whose pleasant Motion is
The form of Bliss:
All Blessedness a life with Glory Crown'd.
Life! Life is all: in its most full extent
Stretcht out to all things, and with all Content!