Religion

Love-Sick

by Henry Vaughan 1621–1695

From Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, ed. George Gilfillan (1860)

Religion

Jesus, my life! how shall I truly love thee!
Oh that thy Spirit would so strongly move me,
That thou wert pleased to shed thy grace so far
As to make man all pure love, flesh a star!
A star that would ne'er set, but ever rise,
So rise and run, as to outrun these skies,
These narrow skies (narrow to me) that bar,
So bar me in, that I am still at war,
At constant war with them. Oh, come, and rend
Or bow the heavens! Lord, bow them and descend,
And at thy presence make these mountains flow,
These mountains of cold ice in me! Thou art
Refining fire; oh, then, refine my heart,
My foul, foul heart! Thou art immortal heat;
Heat motion gives; then warm it, till it beat;
So beat for thee, till thou in mercy hear;
So hear, that thou must open; open to
A sinful wretch, a wretch that caused thy woe;
Thy woe, who caused his weal; so far his weal
That thou forgott'st thine own, for thou didst seal
Mine with thy blood, thy blood which makes thee mine,
Mine ever, ever; and me ever thine.

MLA

Vaughan, Henry. “Love-Sick.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/vaughan/82/.

Chicago

Vaughan, Henry. “Love-Sick.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/vaughan/82/.

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