I love (and have some cause to love) the earth

I love (and have some cause to love) the earth;
She is my Maker's creature, therefore good:
She is my mother, for she gave me birth;
She is my tender nurse; she gives me food:
But what's a creature, Lord, compar'd with thee?
Or what's my mother, or my nurse, to me?

I love the air; her dainty sweets refresh
My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me;
Her shrill-mouth'd choir sustain me with their flesh,
And with their Polyphonian notes delight me:
But what's the air, or all the sweets that she
Can bless my soul withal, compar'd to thee?

I love the sea: she is my fellow-creature,
My careful purveyor; she provides me store:
She walls me round; she makes my diet greater;
She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore:
But, Lord of oceans, when compar'd with thee,
What is the ocean, or her wealth, to me?

To heav'n's high city I direct my journey,
Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye;
Mine eye, by contemplation's great attorney,
Transcends the crystal pavement of the sky:
But what is Heav'n, great God, compar'd to thee?
Without thy presence, Heav'n 's no Heav'n to me.

Without thy presence, earth gives no refection;
Without thy presence, sea affords no treasure;
Without thy presence, air 's a rank infection;
Without thy presence, Heav'n itself 's no pleasure;
If not possess'd, if not enjoy'd in thee,
What 's earth, or sea, or air, or Heav'n, to me?

The highest honours that the world can boast
Are subjects far too low for my desire;
The brightest beams of glory are (at most)
But dying sparkles of thy living fire;
The proudest flames that earth can kindle be
But nightly glow-worms, if compar'd to thee.

Without thy presence, wealth are bags of cares;
Wisdom, but folly; joy, disquiet sadness:
Friendship is treason, and delights are snares;
Pleasure's but pain, and mirth but pleasing madness;
Without thee, Lord, things be not what they be,
Nor have their being when compar'd with thee.

In having all things, and not thee, what have I?
Not having thee, what have my labours got?
Let me enjoy but thee, what farther crave I?
And having thee alone, what have I not?
I wish nor sea nor land; nor would I be
Possess'd of Heav'n, Heav'n unpossess'd of thee.