[ { "title": "Divine Epigrams: On the Miracle of the Multiplied Loaves", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "See here an easy feast that knows no wound,", "That under hunger's teeth will needs be sound;", "A subtle harvest of unbounded bread,", "What would ye more? Here food itself is fed." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "To the Name above every Name, the Name of Jesus", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "I sing the Name which None can say", "But touch’t with An interiour Ray:", "The Name of our New Peace; our Good:", "Our Blisse: and Supernaturall Blood:", "The Name of All our Lives and Loves.", "Hearken, And Help, ye holy Doves!", "The high-born Brood of Day; you bright", "Candidates of blissefull Light,", "The Heirs Elect of Love; whose Names belong", "Unto The everlasting life of Song;", "All ye wise Soules, who in the wealthy Brest", "Of This unbounded Name build your warm Nest.", "Awake, My glory. Soul, (if such thou be,", "And That fair Word at all referr to Thee)", "Awake and sing", "And be All Wing;", "Bring hither thy whole Self; and let me see", "What of thy Parent Heaven yet speakes in thee,", "O thou art Poore", "Of noble Powres, I see,", "And full of nothing else but empty Me,", "Narrow, and low, and infinitely lesse", "Then this Great mornings mighty Busynes.", "One little World or two", "(Alas) will never doe.", "We must have store.", "Goe, Soul, out of thy Self, and seek for More.", "Goe and request", "Great Nature for the Key of her huge Chest", "Of Heavns, the self involving Sett of Sphears", "(Which dull mortality more Feeles then heares)", "Then rouse the nest", "Of nimble, Art, and traverse round", "The Aiery Shop of soul-appeasing Sound:", "And beat a summons in the Same", "All-soveraign Name", "To warn each severall kind", "And shape of sweetnes, Be they such", "As sigh with supple wind", "Or answer Artfull Touch,", "That they convene and come away", "To wait at the love-crowned Doores of", "This Illustrious Day.", "Shall we dare This, my Soul? we’l doe’t and bring", "No Other note for’t, but the Name we sing.", "Wake Lute and Harp", "And every sweet-lipp’t Thing", "That talkes with tunefull string;", "Start into life, And leap with me", "Into a hasty Fitt-tun’d Harmony.", "Nor must you think it much", "T’obey my bolder touch;", "I have Authority in Love’s name to take you", "And to the worke of Love this morning wake you;", "Wake; In the Name", "Of Him who never sleeps, All Things that Are,", "Or, what’s the same,", "Are Musicall;", "Answer my Call", "And come along;", "Help me to meditate mine Immortall Song.", "Come, ye soft ministers of sweet sad mirth,", "Bring All your houshold stuffe of Heavn on earth;", "O you, my Soul’s most certain Wings,", "Complaining Pipes, and prattling Strings,", "Bring All the store", "Of Sweets you have; And murmur that you have no more.", "Come, nй to part,", "Nature and Art!", "Come; and come strong,", "To the conspiracy of our Spatious song.", "Bring All the Powres of Praise", "Your Provinces of well-united Worlds can raise;", "Bring All your Lutes and Harps of Heaven and Earth;", "What йre cooperates to The common mirthe", "Vessells of vocall Ioyes,", "Or You, more noble Architects of Intellectuall Noise,", "Cymballs of Heav’n, or Humane sphears,", "Solliciters of Soules or Eares;", "And when you’are come, with All", "That you can bring or we can call;", "O may you fix", "For ever here, and mix", "Your selves into the long", "And everlasting series of a deathlesse Song;", "Mix All your many Worlds, Above,", "And loose them into One of Love.", "Chear thee my Heart!", "For Thou too hast thy Part", "And Place in the Great Throng", "Of This unbounded All-imbracing Song.", "Powres of my Soul, be Proud!", "And speake lowd", "To All the dear-bought Nations This Redeeming Name,", "And in the wealth of one Rich Word proclaim", "New Similes to Nature.", "May it be no wrong", "Blest Heavns, to you, and your Superiour song,", "That we, dark Sons of Dust and Sorrow,", "A while Dare borrow", "The Name of Your Dilights and our Desires,", "And fitt it to so farr inferior Lyres.", "Our Murmurs have their Musick too,", "Ye mighty Orbes, as well as you,", "Nor yeilds the noblest Nest", "Of warbling Seraphim to the eares of Love,", "A choicer Lesson then the joyfull Brest", "Of a poor panting Turtle-Dove.", "And we, low Wormes have leave to doe", "The Same bright Busynes (ye Third Heavens) with you.", "Gentle Spirits, doe not complain.", "We will have care", "To keep it fair,", "And send it back to you again.", "Come, lovely Name! Appeare from forth the Bright", "Regions of peacefull Light,", "Look from thine own Illustrious Home,", "Fair King of Names, and come.", "Leave All thy native Glories in their Georgeous Nest,", "And give thy Self a while The gracious Guest", "Of humble Soules, that seek to find", "The hidden Sweets", "Which man’s heart meets", "When Thou art Master of the Mind.", "Come, lovely Name; life of our hope!", "Lo we hold our Hearts wide ope!", "Unlock thy Cabinet of Day", "Dearest Sweet, and come away.", "Lo how the thirsty Lands", "Gasp for thy Golden Showres! with longstretch’t Hands.", "Lo how the laboring Earth", "That hopes to be", "All Heaven by Thee,", "Leapes at thy Birth.", "The’ attending World, to wait thy Rise,", "First turn’d to eyes;", "And then, not knowing what to doe;", "Turn’d Them to Teares, and spent Them too.", "Come Royall Name, and pay the expence", "Of all this Pretious Patience.", "O come away", "And kill the Death of This Delay.", "O see, so many Worlds of barren yeares", "Melted and measur’d out is Seas of Teares.", "O see, The Weary liddes of wakefull Hope", "(Love’s Eastern windowes) All wide ope", "With Curtains drawn,", "To catch The Day-break of Thy Dawn.", "O dawn, at last, long look’t for Day!", "Take thine own wings, and come away.", "Lo, where Aloft it comes! It comes, Among", "The Conduct of Adoring Spirits, that throng", "Like diligent Bees, And swarm about it.", "O they are wise;", "And know what Sweetes are suck’t from out it.", "It is the Hive,", "By which they thrive,", "Where All their Hoard of Hony lyes.", "Lo where it comes, upon The snowy Dove’s", "Soft Back; And brings a Bosom big with Loves.", "Welcome to our dark world, Thou", "Womb of Day!", "Unfold thy fair Conceptions; And display", "The Birth of our Bright Ioyes.", "O thou compacted", "Body of Blessings: spirit of Soules extracted!", "O dissipate thy spicy Powres", "(Clowd of condensed sweets) and break upon us", "In balmy showrs;", "O fill our senses, And take from us", "All force of so Prophane a Fallacy", "To think ought sweet but that which smells of Thee.", "Fair, flowry Name; In none but Thee", "And Thy Nectareall Fragrancy,", "Hourly there meetes", "An universall Synod of All sweets;", "By whom it is defined Thus", "That no Perfume", "For ever shall presume", "To passe for Odoriferous,", "But such alone whose sacred Pedigree", "Can prove it Self some kin (sweet name) to Thee.", "Sweet Name, in Thy each Syllable", "A Thousand Blest Arabias dwell;", "A Thousand Hills of Frankincense;", "Mountains of myrrh, and Beds of species,", "And ten Thousand Paradises,", "The soul that tasts thee takes from thence.", "How many unknown Worlds there are", "Of Comforts, which Thou hast in keeping!", "How many Thousand Mercyes there", "In Pitty’s soft lap ly a sleeping!", "Happy he who has the art", "To awake them,", "And to take them", "Home, and lodge them in his Heart.", "O that it were as it was wont to be!", "When thy old Freinds of Fire, All full of Thee,", "Fought against Frowns with smiles; gave Glorious chase", "To Persecutions; And against the Face", "Of Death and feircest Dangers, durst with Brave", "And sober pace march on to meet A Grave.", "On their Bold Brests about the world they bore thee", "And to the Teeth of Hell stood up to teach thee,", "In Center of their inmost Soules they wore thee,", "Where Rackes and Torments striv’d, in vain, to reach thee.", "Little, alas, thought They", "Who tore the Fair Brests of thy Freinds,", "Their Fury but made way", "For Thee; And serv’d them in Thy glorious ends.", "What did Their weapons but with wider pores", "Inlarge thy flaming-brested Lovers", "More freely to transpire", "That impatient Fire", "The Heart that hides Thee hardly covers.", "What did their Weapons but sett wide the Doores", "For Thee: Fair, purple Doores, of love’s devising;", "The Ruby windowes which inrich’t the East", "Of Thy so oft repeated Rising.", "Each wound of Theirs was Thy new Morning;", "And reinthron’d thee in thy Rosy Nest,", "With blush of thine own Blood thy day adorning,", "It was the witt of love уreflowd the Bounds", "Of Wrath, and made thee way through All Those wounds.", "Wellcome dear, All-Adored Name!", "For sure there is no Knee", "That knowes not Thee.", "Or if there be such sonns of shame,", "Alas what will they doe", "When stubborn Rocks shall bow", "And Hills hang down their Heavn-saluting Heads", "To seek for humble Beds", "Of Dust, where in the Bashfull shades of night", "Next to their own low Nothing they may ly,", "And couch before the dazeling light of thy dread majesty.", "They that by Love’s mild Dictate now", "Will not adore thee,", "Shall Then with Just Confusion, bow", "And break before thee." ], "linecount": "239" }, { "title": "An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "TO these whom death again did wed", "This grave 's the second marriage-bed.", "For though the hand of Fate could force", "'Twixt soul and body a divorce,", "It could not sever man and wife,", "Because they both lived but one life.", "Peace, good reader, do not weep;", "Peace, the lovers are asleep.", "They, sweet turtles, folded lie", "In the last knot that love could tie.", "Let them sleep, let them sleep on,", "Till the stormy night be gone,", "And the eternal morrow dawn;", "Then the curtains will be drawn,", "And they wake into a light", "Whose day shall never die in night." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Divine Epigrams: To our Lord, upon the Water Made Wine", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "Thou water turn'st to wine, fair friend of life,", "Thy foe, to cross the sweet arts of thy reign,", "Distills from thence the tears of wrath and strife,", "And so turns wine to water back again." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "LOVE, thou are absolute, sole Lord", "Of life and death. To prove the word,", "We'll now appeal to none of all", "Those thy old soldiers, great and tall,", "Ripe men of martyrdom, that could reach down", "With strong arms their triumphant crown:", "Such as could with lusty breath", "Speak loud, unto the face of death,", "Their great Lord's glorious name; to none", "Of those whose spacious bosoms spread a throne", "For love at large to fill. Spare blood and sweat:", "We'll see Him take a private seat,", "And make His mansion in the mild", "And milky soul of a soft child.", "Scarce has she learnt to lisp a name", "Of martyr, yet she thinks it shame", "Life should so long play with that breath", "Which spent can buy so brave a death.", "She never undertook to know", "What death with love should have to do.", "Nor has she e'er yet understood", "Why, to show love, she should shed blood;", "Yet, though she cannot tell you why,", "She can love, and she can die.", "Scarce has she blood enough to make", "A guilty sword blush for her sake;", "Yet has a heart dares hope to prove", "How much less strong is death than love....", "", "Since 'tis not to be had at home,", "She'll travel for a martyrdom.", "No home for her, confesses she,", "But where she may a martyr be.", "She'll to the Moors, and trade with them", "For this unvalued diadem;", "She offers them her dearest breath,", "With Christ's name in 't, in charge for death:", "She'll bargain with them, and will give", "Them God, and teach them how to live", "In Him; or, if they this deny,", "For Him she'll teach them how to die.", "So shall she leave amongst them sown", "Her Lord's blood, or at least her own.", "", "Farewell then, all the world, adieu!", "Teresa is no more for you.", "Farewell all pleasures, sports, and joys,", "Never till now esteemed toys!", "", "Farewell whatever dear may be--", "Mother's arms, or father's knee!", "Farewell house, and farewell home!", "She 's for the Moors and Martyrdom.", "", "Sweet, not so fast; lo! thy fair spouse,", "Whom thou seek'st with so swift vows,", "Calls thee back, and bids thee come", "T' embrace a milder martyrdom....", "", "O how oft shalt thou complain", "Of a sweet and subtle pain!", "Of intolerable joys!", "Of a death, in which who dies", "Loves his death, and dies again,", "And would for ever so be slain;", "And lives and dies, and knows not why", "To live, but that he still may die!", "How kindly will thy gentle heart", "Kiss the sweetly-killing dart!", "And close in his embraces keep", "Those delicious wounds, that weep", "Balsam, to heal themselves with thus,", "When these thy deaths, so numerous,", "Shall all at once die into one,", "And melt thy soul's sweet mansion;", "Like a soft lump of incense, hasted", "By too hot a fire, and wasted", "Into perfuming clouds, so fast", "Shalt thou exhale to heaven at last", "In a resolving sigh, and then,--", "O what? Ask not the tongues of men.", "", "Angels cannot tell; suffice,", "Thyself shalt feel thine own full joys,", "And hold them fast for ever there.", "So soon as thou shalt first appear,", "The moon of maiden stars, thy white", "Mistress, attended by such bright", "Souls as thy shining self, shall come,", "And in her first ranks make thee room;", "Where, 'mongst her snowy family,", "Immortal welcomes wait for thee.", "O what delight, when she shall stand", "And teach thy lips heaven, with her hand,", "On which thou now may'st to thy wishes", "Heap up thy consecrated kisses!", "What joy shall seize thy soul, when she,", "Bending her blessed eyes on thee,", "Those second smiles of heaven, shall dart", "Her mild rays through thy melting heart!", "", "Angels, thy old friends, there shall greet thee,", "Glad at their own home now to meet thee.", "All thy good works which went before,", "And waited for thee at the door,", "Shall own thee there; and all in one", "Weave a constellation", "Of crowns, with which the King, thy spouse,", "Shall build up thy triumphant brows.", "All thy old woes shall now smile on thee,", "And thy pains sit bright upon thee:", "All thy sorrows here shall shine,", "And thy sufferings be divine.", "Tears shall take comfort, and turn gems,", "And wrongs repent to diadems.", "Even thy deaths shall live, and new", "Dress the soul which late they slew.", "Thy wounds shall blush to such bright scars", "As keep account of the Lamb's wars.", "", "Those rare works, where thou shalt leave writ", "Love's noble history, with wit", "Taught thee by none but Him, while here", "They feed our souls, shall clothe thine there.", "Each heavenly word by whose hid flame", "Our hard hearts shall strike fire, the same", "Shall flourish on thy brows, and be", "Both fire to us and flame to thee;", "Whose light shall live bright in thy face", "By glory, in our hearts by grace.", "Thou shalt look round about, and see", "Thousands of crown'd souls throng to be", "Themselves thy crown, sons of thy vows,", "The virgin-births with which thy spouse", "Made fruitful thy fair soul; go now,", "And with them all about thee bow", "To Him; put on, He'll say, put on,", "My rosy Love, that thy rich zone,", "Sparkling with the sacred flames", "Of thousand souls, whose happy names", "Heaven keeps upon thy score: thy bright", "Life brought them first to kiss the light", "That kindled them to stars; and so", "Thou with the Lamb, thy Lord, shalt go.", "And, wheresoe'er He sets His white", "Steps, walk with Him those ways of light,", "Which who in death would live to see,", "Must learn in life to die like thee." ], "linecount": "140" }, { "title": "But Men Loved Darkness rather than Light", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "The world's light shines, shine as it will,", "The world will love its darkness still.", "I doubt though when the world's in hell,", "It will not love its darkness half so well." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Prayer", "author": "Richard Crashaw", "lines": [ "LO here a little volume, but great Book", "A nest of new-born sweets;", "Whose native fires disdaining", "To ly thus folded, and complaining", "Of these ignoble sheets,", "Affect more comly bands", "(Fair one) from the kind hands", "And confidently look", "To find the rest", "Of a rich binding in your Brest.", "It is, in one choise handfull, heavenn; and all", "Heavn’s Royall host; incamp’t thus small", "To prove that true schooles use to tell,", "Ten thousand Angels in one point can dwell.", "It is love’s great artillery", "Which here contracts itself, and comes to ly", "Close couch’t in their white bosom: and from thence", "As from a snowy fortresse of defence,", "Against their ghostly foes to take their part,", "And fortify the hold of their chast heart.", "It is an armory of light", "Let constant use but keep it bright,", "You’l find it yeilds", "To holy hands and humble hearts", "More swords and sheilds", "Then sin hath snares, or Hell hath darts.", "Only be sure", "The hands be pure", "That hold these weapons; and the eyes", "Those of turtles, chast and true;", "Wakefull and wise;", "Here is a freind shall fight for you,", "Hold but this book before their heart;", "Let prayer alone to play his part,", "But ф the heart", "That studyes this high Art", "Must be a sure house-keeper", "And yet no sleeper.", "Dear soul, be strong.", "Mercy will come e’re long", "And bring his bosom fraught with blessings,", "Flowers of never fading graces", "To make immortall dressings", "For worthy soules, whose wise embraces", "Store up themselves for Him, who is alone", "The Spouse of Virgins and the Virgin’s son.", "But if the noble Bridegroom, when he come", "Shall find the loytering Heart from home;", "Leaving her chast aboad", "To gadde abroad", "Among the gay mates of the god of flyes;", "To take her pleasure and to play", "And keep the devill’s holyday;", "To dance th’sunshine of some smiling", "But beguiling", "Spheares of sweet and sugred Lyes,", "Some slippery Pair", "Of false, perhaps as fair,", "Flattering but forswearing eyes;", "Doubtlesse some other heart", "Will gett the start", "Mean while, and stepping in before", "Will take possession of that sacred store", "Of hidden sweets and holy ioyes.", "Words which are not heard with Eares", "(Those tumultuous shops of noise)", "Effectuall wispers, whose still voice", "The soul it selfe more feeles then heares;", "Amorous languishments; luminous trances;", "Sights which are not seen with eyes;", "Spirituall and soul-peircing glances", "Whose pure and subtil lightning flyes", "Home to the heart, and setts the house on fire", "And melts it down in sweet desire", "Yet does not stay", "To ask the windows leave to passe that way;", "Delicious Deaths; soft exalations", "Of soul; dear and divine annihilations;", "A thousand unknown rites", "Of ioyes and rarefy’d delights;", "A hundred thousand goods, glories, and graces,", "And many a mystick thing", "Which the divine embraces", "Of the deare spouse of spirits with them will bring", "For which it is no shame", "That dull mortality must not know a name.", "Of all this store", "Of blessings and ten thousand more", "(If when he come", "He find the Heart from home)", "Doubtlesse he will unload", "Himself some other where,", "And poure abroad", "His pretious sweets", "On the fair soul whom first he meets.", "O fair, ф fortunate! O riche, ф dear!", "O happy and thrice happy she", "Selected dove", "Who ere she be,", "Whose early love", "With winged vowes", "Makes hast to meet her morning spouse", "And close with his immortall kisses.", "Happy indeed, who never misses", "To improve that pretious hour,", "And every day", "Seize her sweet prey", "All fresh and fragrant as he rises", "Dropping with a baulmy Showr", "A delicious dew of spices;", "O let the blissfull heart hold fast", "Her heavnly arm-full, she shall tast", "At once ten thousand paradises;", "She shall have power", "To rifle and deflour", "The rich and roseall spring of those rare sweets", "Which with a swelling bosome there she meets", "Boundles and infinite", "Bottomles treasures", "Of pure inebriating pleasures", "Happy proof! she shal discover", "What ioy, what blisse,", "How many Heav’ns at once it is", "To have her God become her Lover." ], "linecount": "124" } ]