Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/407

 RICHARD CRASHAW

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 thec.

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 thce,

Those second smiles of heaven, shall dart

Her mild rays through thy melting heart!

Angels, thy old friends, there shall greet thec, Glad at their own home now to meet thee.

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