University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
A paraphrase upon the canticles

and some select hymns of the New and Old Testament, with other occasional compositions in English verse. By Samuel Woodford
  

collapse section 
  
  
  
expand section 
expand section 
expand section 
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
expand section 
  
expand section 
  
  
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
  
expand section 
expand section 
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 

Kind Earth, where I securely trust
My Dearest half, in Peace to sleep;

157

Be sure thou safely guard her Dust,
And undisturb'd the still lov'd Ashes keep:
But look thou lightly on them fall,
And as in thine own Center have no weight at all!
So shalt thou be with Roses Crown'd,
And all those Flowers, which now I strow,
Again, as in their Native Ground,
Only more fair, shall in thy Bosom grow;
Maintain'd by an Eternal Spring,
Which with my constant Tears, I to these Banks will bring.
Witness ye Floods, which deeper run,
By them encreast than heretofore;
And as you purling roll along,
Those ancient bounds you seldom toucht, run o're;
At my request yet higher swell,
And what's their power, tho in your broken numbers, tell.
With you my Tears, but here's my Fire,
Preserv'd alive in Clelias Urn;
Never to Languish, or Expire,
But in the next Age to break forth and burn:
When it to Verse a Theam shall give,
And by the Flames it shall inspire, be known to live.