University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Poems of Edward Taylor

Edited by Donald E. Standford ... With a foreword by Louis L. Martz

collapse section 
  
expand section 
expand section 
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Preface.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 


433

The Preface.

SOUL
Long lookt for Sir! Happy, right Happy Saint.
I long to lay before you my Complaint:
And gain your Counsill: but you're strange: and I
Through backwardness lost opportunity.

SAINT
How is't good Sir: methinks I finde there dart
Some pleasant Hopes of you within my heart.
What is your Rantery declinde, foregone?
Your looks are like the Earth you Tread upon.

SOUL
Its true: I do, and well may look so, too
For worse than mee the world did never show.
My sins are dide in grain: all Grace I lack.
This doth my Soul on tenterhooks enwrack.
Wherefore I Counsill Crave touching my sin
My Want of Grace. Temptations too within.