Poem by Thomas Traherne

Sin

Sin!
O only fatal woe,
That mak'st me sad and mourning go!
That all my joys dost spoil,
His Kingdom and my Soul defile!
I never can agree
With thee!

Thou!
Only thou! O thou alone,
And my obdurate heart of stone,
The poison and the foes
Of my enjoyments and repose,
The only bitter ill,
Dost kill !

Oh!
I cannot meet with thee,
Nor once approach thy memory,
But all my joys are dead,
And all my sacred Treasures fled
As if I now did dwell
In Hell.

Lord
O hear how short I breathe!
See how I tremble here beneath
A Sin! Its ugly face
More terror, than its dwelling place
Contains (O dreadful Sin!)
Within!

THE RECOVERY

Sin! wilt thou vanquish me?
And shall I yield the victory ?
Shall all my joys be spoil'd,
And pleasures soil'd
By thee?
Shall I remain
As one that's slain
And never more lift up the head?
Is not my Saviour dead?
His blood, thy bane, my balsam, bliss, joy, wine,
Shall thee destroy; heal, feed, make me divine.

1. A Life of Sabbaths Here Beneath
2. In Making Bodies Love Could Not Express
3. Shadows in the Water
4. To the Same Purpose
5. An Hymn upon St. Bartholomew's Day

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