Tixall Poetry/Cupio Dissolvi. St Paule

by unknown author

Cupio Dissolvi. St Paule.

 

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The soule which doth with God unite;
Those gaitys, how doth she slight,
    Which o'er opinion sway?
Like sacred virgin wax, which shines
On altars, or on martyrs' shrines,
    How doth she burne away?

How soone she leaves the pride of wealth,
The flatteries of youth and health,
    And fame's more pretious breath
And every gaudy circumstance,
That doth the pomp of life advance,
    At the approach of death!

The cunning of astrologers
Observes each motion of the stars,
    Placing all knowledge there;
And lovers in their mistres' eyes
Contract those wonders of the skies,
    And seeke no higher sphere.

The wandring pilot toils to find
The causes that produce the wind,
    Still gazing on the pole;
The polititian scornes all art
But what doth pride and power impart,
    And swells the ambitious soule.

But he whom heavenly fire doth warme,
And, gainst these powerfull follys arme,
    Doth soberly disdaine,
All these fond human misterys,
As the deceitful and unwise
    Distempers of the braine.