Poem by Thomas Traherne

Admiration

Can Human Shape so taking be,
That Angels com and sip
Ambrosia from a Mortal Lip!
Can Cherubims descend with Joy to see
God in his Works beneath!
Can Mortals breath
FELICITY!
Can Bodies fill the hev'nly Rooms
With welcom Odours and Perfumes!
Can Earth-bred Flow'rs adorn Celestial Bowers
Or yield such Fruits as pleas the hev'nly Powers!

Then may the Seas with Amber flow;
The Earth a Star appear;
Things be divine and hevenly here.
The Tree of Life in Paradise may grow
Among us now: the Sun
Be quite out-don
By Beams that shew
More bright than his: Celestial Mirth
May yet inhabit all this Earth.
It cannot be! Can Mortals be so blind?
Hav Joys so near them, which they never mind?

The Lilly and the Rosy-Train
Which, scatter'd on the ground,
Salute the Feet which they surround,
Grow for thy sake, O Man; that like a Chain
Or Garland they may be
To deck ev'n thee:
They all remain
Thy Gems; and bowing down their head
Their liquid Pearl they kindly shed
In Tears; as if they meant to wash thy Feet,
For Joy that they to serv thee are made meet.

The Sun doth smile, and looking down
From Hev'n doth blush to see
Himself excelled here by thee:
Yet frankly doth dispers his Beams to crown
A Creature so divine;
He lovs to shine,
Nor lets a Frown
Eclyps his Brow, becaus he givs
Light for the Use of one that livs
Abov himself. Lord! What is Man that he
Is thus admired like a Deity!

1. Shadows in the Water
2. The Recovery
3. Dumbness
4. To the Same Purpose
5. The Apostasy

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