Emblems With elegant figures :: :: University of Virginia Library

Lord! dost thou see,
This ruddy piece of clay how it doth flie
Up towards thee!
Ambitious of a sweet tranquillity!
Within thy bosome, loe
How speedily 't doth go?
Featherd by active fire,
Whereby it mount's and towers up higher
Then its own groveling thoughts could reach
Before that thou didst teach,
How doth it throw
And leave below
Those which wear shackles, but now trophies are?
Oh how it flashes
Reduc't to ashes?
Yet were alive till now.
Those darts are med'cines which destructive were
And cut but beds for balm to flow
Whilst the ascending day forgets 'twas ere below.

2

Yet this was once
Grave to it self, bound in most potent chaines
(Corruptions)
Whilst a chil'd poison did congeal my veines,

Which speckled tombestones were;
Then durst no day appear
But darkness shrowded all,
And thick Egyptian damps did fall;
I knew not I benighted was,
Or else a night did cause
Pleas'd that I lay
Without a ray
Till thou, (great world of light!) broke out & then
My chains did fall,
I that was all
One issicle, became
One tear, and now my veines ran bloud again:
Take Lord what thou thy self didst frame
And on thine Altar deign to cherish thine own flame

Epigram 9.

I'me thine, and for my homage, take my heart
('Tis, though a little, yet my greatest part
Which can as well not lie, as think) and say
I give but what I cannot keep away.