The Poetical Works of John Payne Definitive Edition in Two Volumes |
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TRINITAS TRINITATUM. |
 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
TRINITAS TRINITATUM.
LOVE is best:
To lie and rest,
Cradled on some darling breast,
What is sweeter,
What completer
Peace in all the perimeter
Of this round of nights and days?
Go thy ways,
World of weariness and madness,
Passing glee and poisoned gladness,
Ceasing cheer and staying sadness,
Nought have I to do with thee.
Play thy plays
With other preys;
Love is all in all to me.
To lie and rest,
Cradled on some darling breast,
What is sweeter,
What completer
Peace in all the perimeter
Of this round of nights and days?
Go thy ways,
World of weariness and madness,
Passing glee and poisoned gladness,
Ceasing cheer and staying sadness,
Nought have I to do with thee.
Play thy plays
With other preys;
Love is all in all to me.
Peace is best:
O heavenly guest,
North and South and East and West,
What is fairer,
What is rarer,
For the weary, footworn farer
Of the ways of sea and land,
Than thy hand
Laid upon his forehead's burning,
Than to find, in his returning,
From his spirit stress and yearning,
From his deeming doubt and care
Barred and banned,
At thy command,
Sorrow silenced, foul made fair?
O heavenly guest,
North and South and East and West,
What is fairer,
What is rarer,
For the weary, footworn farer
Of the ways of sea and land,
Than thy hand
Laid upon his forehead's burning,
Than to find, in his returning,
346
From his deeming doubt and care
Barred and banned,
At thy command,
Sorrow silenced, foul made fair?
Sleep is best:
In slumber's nest,
All forgotten, strife and quest,
What is fitter,
What is better
For the weary would-be setter
Of this world, the crooked, straight?
Ope thy gate,
Bird of bliss, and sooth my sorrow;
From thy treasure bid me borrow
Dreams of some serener morrow,
Where with beauty one is truth:
Snatch me straight
From age and hate
To the lands of love and youth!
In slumber's nest,
All forgotten, strife and quest,
What is fitter,
What is better
For the weary would-be setter
Of this world, the crooked, straight?
Ope thy gate,
Bird of bliss, and sooth my sorrow;
From thy treasure bid me borrow
Dreams of some serener morrow,
Where with beauty one is truth:
Snatch me straight
From age and hate
To the lands of love and youth!
Whether best
Must be confessed?
Love, peace, sleep, the palm contest.
Love is sweetest,
Peace is meetest,
Sleep for sage and fool is featest:
Each divine is: but the three,
Met together in one treasure,
To the height fill up the measure
Of the heart's ideal pleasure.
Be all three into one sheaf
Bound for me
By fate's decree,
And I'll scoff at glee and grief.
Must be confessed?
Love, peace, sleep, the palm contest.
Love is sweetest,
Peace is meetest,
Sleep for sage and fool is featest:
Each divine is: but the three,
Met together in one treasure,
To the height fill up the measure
Of the heart's ideal pleasure.
Be all three into one sheaf
Bound for me
By fate's decree,
And I'll scoff at glee and grief.
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |