Life.

75

Farewell, dear flowers! sweetly your time

ye spent,

Fit while ye lived for smell or ornament, And after death for cures :

I follow straight, without complaints or

grief,

Since if my scent be good, I care not if It be as short as yours!

76 Thou that know'st for whom I Mourn.

THOU THAT KNOW'ST FOR WHOM I MOURN.

HOU that know'st for whom I

mourn,

And why these tears appear,

That keep'st account, till the return,
Of all his dust, left here;

As easily thou might'st prevent,

As now produce, these tears, And add, unto that day he went,

A fair supply of years.

But 'twas my sin that forced thy hand
To cull this primrose out,
That by thy early choice forewarned
My soul might look about.

For thou hast placed in man's outside

Death to the common eye,

That heaven within him might abide
And close eternity.

Thus, Lord, I see my gain is great,
My loss but little to it;

Thou that know'st for whom I Mourn. 77

Yet something more I must entreat,
And only thou canst do it.

O let me, like him, know my end,
And be as glad to find it,

And whatsoe'er thou shalt commend,
Still let thy servant mind it!
Then make my soul white as his own,
My faith as pure and steady,

And deck me, Lord, with the same crown
That has crowned him already.

78 Dear Friend, far off, my lost Desire.

DEAR FRIEND, FAR OFF, MY LOST

D

DESIRE.

EAR friend, far off, my lost desire,
So far, so near, in woe and

weal;

Oh, loved the most when most I feel There is a lower and a higher;

Known and unknown, human, divine!
Sweet human hand and lips and eye,
Dear heavenly friend that canst
die,

Mine, mine, forever, ever mine!

Strange friend, past, present, and to be,
Loved deeplier, darklier understood;
Behold I dream a dream of good
And mingle all the world with thee.

Thy voice is on the rolling air;

I hear thee where the waters run;
Thou standest in the rising sun,

And in the setting thou art fair.

not

Dear Friend, far off, my lost Desire. 79 What art thou, then? I cannot guess;

But though I seem in star and flower To feel thee, some diffusive power, I do not therefore love thee less.

Far off thou art, but ever nigh;
I have thee still, and I rejoice;
I prosper, circled with thy voice;
I shall not lose thee, though I die.