Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Dedication
- General Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Poems from the Dobell Folio
- Poems of Felicity
- Dedication
- The Author to the Critical Peruser
- The Publisher to the Reader
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- An Infant-Ey
- The Return
- The Præparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- News
- Felicity
- Adam's Fall
- The World
- The Apostacy (‘Blisse’, stanzas 5 & 6)
- Solitude
- Poverty
- Dissatisfaction
- The Bible
- Christendom
- On Christmas-Day
- Bells. I
- Bells. II
- Churches. I
- Churches. II
- Misapprehension
- The Improvment
- The Odour
- Admiration
- The Approach
- Nature
- Eas
- Dumness
- My Spirit
- Silence
- Right Apprehension
- Right Apprehension. II (‘The Apprehension’)
- Fulness
- Speed
- The Choice (‘The Designe’)
- The Person
- The Image
- The Estate
- The Evidence
- The Enquiry
- Shadows in the Water
- On Leaping over the Moon
- ‘To the same purpos’
- Sight
- Walking
- The Dialogue
- Dreams
- The Inference. I
- The Inference. II
- The City
- Insatiableness. I
- Insatiableness. II
- Consummation
- Hosanna
- The Review. I
- The Review. II
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
The Person
from Poems of Felicity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Dedication
- General Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Poems from the Dobell Folio
- Poems of Felicity
- Dedication
- The Author to the Critical Peruser
- The Publisher to the Reader
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- An Infant-Ey
- The Return
- The Præparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- News
- Felicity
- Adam's Fall
- The World
- The Apostacy (‘Blisse’, stanzas 5 & 6)
- Solitude
- Poverty
- Dissatisfaction
- The Bible
- Christendom
- On Christmas-Day
- Bells. I
- Bells. II
- Churches. I
- Churches. II
- Misapprehension
- The Improvment
- The Odour
- Admiration
- The Approach
- Nature
- Eas
- Dumness
- My Spirit
- Silence
- Right Apprehension
- Right Apprehension. II (‘The Apprehension’)
- Fulness
- Speed
- The Choice (‘The Designe’)
- The Person
- The Image
- The Estate
- The Evidence
- The Enquiry
- Shadows in the Water
- On Leaping over the Moon
- ‘To the same purpos’
- Sight
- Walking
- The Dialogue
- Dreams
- The Inference. I
- The Inference. II
- The City
- Insatiableness. I
- Insatiableness. II
- Consummation
- Hosanna
- The Review. I
- The Review. II
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Summary
Ye sacred Limbs,
A richer Blazon I will lay
On you, than first I found:
That, like Celestial Kings,
Ye might with Ornaments of Joy
Be always crown'd.
A deep Vermilion on a Red,
On that a Scarlet, I will lay;
With Gold I'll crown your Head,
Which like the Sun shall ray:
With Robes of Glory and Delight
I'll make you bright.
Mistake me not: I do not mean to bring
New Robes, but to display the thing;
Nor paint, nor cloath, nor crown, nor add a Ray;
But glorify by taking all away.
The Naked Things
Are most sublime, and brightest shew,
When they alone are seen:
Mens Hands than Angels Wings
Are truer Wealth, tho here below;
For those but seem.
Their Worth they then do best reveal
When we all Metaphors remov;
For, Metaphors conceal,
And only Vapors prov.
They best are blazon'd when we see
Th' Anatomy,
Survey the Skin, cut up the Flesh, the Veins
Unfold; the Glory there remains:
The Muscles, Fibres, Arteries, and Bones,
Are better far than Artificial Stones.
Shall I not then
Delight in this most Sacred Treasure,
Which my Great Father gave,
Far more than other men
Delight in Plate? Since these do pleasure
And make us brave!
Much braver than the Pearl and Gold
That glitter on a Lady's Neck.
The Rubies we behold,
The Diamonds that deck
The Hands of Queens, compar'd unto
The Limbs we view;
The whitest Lillies, blushing Roses, are
Less Ornaments to those that wear
The same, than are the Hands, and Lips, and Eys
Of them who those false Ornaments so prize.
Let Verity
Be thy Delight: Let me esteem
Tru Wealth far more than Toys:
Let Sacred Riches be,
While the fictitious only seem,
My Reall Joys:
For Golden Chains and Bracelets are
But gilded Manacles, wherby
Old Satan doth ensnare,
Allure, bewitch the Ey.
Thy Gifts, O God, alone I'll prize,
My Tongue, my Eys,
My Cheeks, my Lips, mine Ears, my Hands, my Feet;
Their Harmony is far more sweet,
Their Beauty tru. And these, in all my Ways,
Shall be the Themes and Organs of thy Prais.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Works of Thomas Traherne VIPoems from the 'Dobell Folio', Poems of Felicity, The Ceremonial Law, Poems from the 'Early Notebook', pp. 162 - 164Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014