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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Pearl</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Pearl of delight that a prince doth please<br>To grace in gold enclosed so clear, <br>I vow that from over orient seas<br>Never proved I any in price her peer.<br>So round, so radiant ranged by these,<br>So fine, so smooth did her sides appear<br>That ever in judging gems that please<br>Her only alone I deemed as dear.<br>Alas! I lost her in garden near:<br>Through grass to the ground from me it shot;<br>I pine now oppressed by love-wound drear<br>For that pearl, mine own, without a spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">2 <br>Since in that spot it sped from me,<br>I have looked and longed for that precious thing<br>That me once was wont from woe to free,<br>To uplift my lot and healing bring,<br>But my heart doth hurt now cruelly,<br>My breast with burning torment sting.<br>Yet in secret hour came soft to me<br>The sweetest song I e'er heard sing;<br>Yea, many a thought in mind did spring<br>To think that her radiance in clay should rot.<br>O mould! Thou marrest a lovely thing,<br>My pearl, mine own, without a spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">3<br>In that spot must needs be spices spread<br>Where away such wealth to waste hath run;<br>Blossoms pale and blue and red<br>There shimmer shining in the sun;<br>No flower nor fruit their hue may shed<br>Where it down into darkling earth was done,<br>For all grass must grow from grains that are dead,<br>No wheat would else to barn be won.<br>From good all good is ever begun,<br>And fail so fair a seed could not,<br>So that sprang and sprouted spices none<br>From that precious pearl without a spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">4 <br>That spot whereof I speak I found<br>When I entered in that garden green,<br>As August's season high came round<br>When corn is cut with sickles keen.<br>There, where that pearl rolled down, a mound<br>With herbs was shadowed fair and sheen,<br>With gillyflower, ginger, and gromwell crowned,<br>And peonies powdered all between.<br>If sweet was all that there was seen,<br>Fair too, a fragrance flowed I wot,<br>Where dwells that dearest, as I ween,<br>My precious pearl without a spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">5 <br>By that spot my hands I wrung dismayed;<br>For care full cold that had me caught<br>A hopeless grief on my heart was laid.<br>Though reason to reconcile me sought,<br>For my pearl there prisoned a plaint I made,<br>In fierce debate unmoved I fought;<br>Be comforted Christ Himself me bade,<br>But in woe my will ever strove distraught.<br>On the flowery plot I fell, methought;<br>Such odour through my senses shot,<br>I slipped and to sudden sleep was brought,<br>O'er that precious pearl without a spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">6 <br>From that spot my spirit sprang apace,<br>On the turf my body abode in trance;<br>My would was gone by God's own grace<br>Adventuring where marvels chance.<br>I knew not where in the world was that place<br>Save by cloven cliffs was set my stance;<br>And towards a forest I turned my face,<br>Where rocks in splendour met my glance;<br>From them did a glittering glory lance,<br>None could believe the light they lent;<br>Never webs were woven in mortal haunts<br>Of half such wealth and wonderment.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">7<br>Wondrous was made each mountain-side<br>With crystal cliffs so clear of hue;<br>About them woodlands bright lay wide,<br>As Indian dye their boles were blue;<br>The leaves did as burnished silver slide<br>That thick upon twigs were trembling grew.<br>When glades let light upon them glide<br>They shone with a shimmer of dazzling hue.<br>The gravel on ground that I trod with shoe<br>Was of precious pearls of Orient:<br>Sunbeams are blear and dark to view<br>Compared with that fair wonderment.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">8 <br>In wonder at those fells so fair<br>My soul all grief forgot let fall;<br>Odours so fresh of fruits there were,<br>I was fed as by food celestial.<br>In the woods the birds did wing and pair,<br>Of flaming hues, both great and small;<br>But cithern-string and gittern-player<br>Their merry mirth could ne'er recall,<br>For when the beat their pinions all<br>In harmony their voices bent:<br>No delight more lovely could men enthrall<br>Than behold and hear that wonderment.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">9<br>Thus arrayed was all in wonderment<br>That forest where forth my fortune led;<br>No man its splendour to present<br>With tongue could worthy words have said.<br>I walked ever onward well-content;<br>No hill was so tall that it stayed my tread;<br>More fair the further afield I went<br>Were plants, and fruits, and spices spread;<br>Through hedge and mead lush waters led<br>As in strands of gold there steeply pent.<br>A river I reached in cloven bed:<br>O Lord! the wealth of its wonderment!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">10<br>The adornments of that wondrous deep<br>Were beauteous banks of beryl bright:<br>Swirling sweetly its waters sweep,<br>Ever rippling on in murmurous flight.<br>In the depths stood dazzling stones aheap<br>As a glitter through glass that glowed with light,<br>As streaming stars when on earth men sleep<br>Stare in the welkin in winter night;<br>For emerald, sapphire, or jewel bright<br>Was every pebble in pool there pent,<br>And the water was lit with rays of light,<br>Such wealth was in its wonderment.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">11 <br>The wonderous wealth of down and dales, <br>of wood and water and lordly plain,<br>My mirth makes mount: my mourning fails,<br>My care is quelled and cured my pain.<br>Then down a stream that strongly sails<br>I blissful turn with teeming brain;<br>The further I follow those flowing vales<br>The more strength of joy my heart doth strain.<br>As fortune fares where she doth deign,<br>Whether gladness she gives or grieving sore,<br>So he who may her graces gain,<br>His hap is to have ever more and more.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">12 <br>There more was of such marvels thrice<br>Than I could tell, though I long delayed;<br>For earthly heart could not suffice<br>For a tithe of the joyful joys displayed.<br>Therefore I thought that Paradise<br>Across those banks was yonder laid;<br>I weened that the water by device<br>As bounds between pleasances was made;<br>Beyond that stream by steep or slade<br>That city's walls I weened must soar;<br>But the water was deep, I dared not wade,<br>And ever I longed to, more and more.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">13<br>More and more, and yet still more,<br>I fain beyond the stream had scanned,<br>For fair as was this hither shore,<br>Far lovelier was the further land.<br>To find a ford I did then explore,<br>And round about did stare and stand;<br>But perils pressed in sooth more sore<br>The further I strode along the strand.<br>I should not, I thought, by fear be banned<br>From delights so lovely that lay in store;<br>But a happening new then came to hand<br>That moved my mind ever more and more.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">14 <br>A marvel more did my mind amaze:<br>I saw beyond that border bright<br>From a crystal cliff the lucent rays<br>And beams in splendour lift their light.<br>A child abode there at its base:<br>She wore a gown of glistening white,<br>A gentle maid of courtly grace;<br>Erewhile I had known her well by sight.<br>As shredded gold that glistered bright<br>She shone in beauty upon the shore;<br>Long did my glance on her alight,<br>And the longer I looked I knew her more.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">15 <br>The more I that face so fair surveyed,<br>When upon her gracious form I gazed,<br>Such gladdening glory upon me played<br>As my wont was seldom to see upraised.<br>Desire to call her then me swayed,<br>But dumb surprise my mind amazed;<br>In place so strange I saw that maid,<br>The blow might well my wits have crazed.<br>Her forehead fair then up she raised<br>That hue of polished ivory wore.<br>It smote my heart distraught and dazed,<br>And ever the longer, the more and more.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">16 <br>More than I would my dread did rise.<br>I stood there still and dared not call<br>With closed mouth and open eyes,<br>I stood as tame as hawk in hall.<br>A ghost was present, I did surmise,<br>And feared for what might then befall,<br>Lest she should flee before mine eyes<br>Ere I to tryst could her recall.<br>So smooth, so seemly, slight and small,<br>That flawless fair and mirthful maid<br>Arose in robes majestical,<br>A precious gem in pearls arrayed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">17 <br>There pearls arrayed and royally dight<br>Might one have seen by fortune graced<br>When fresh as flower-de-luces bright<br>She down to the water swiftly paced<br>In linen robe of glistening white,<br>With open sides that seams enlaced<br>With the merriest margery-pearls my sight<br>Ever before, I vow, had traced.<br>Her sleeves hung long below her waist<br>Adorned with pearls in double braid;<br>Her kirtle matched her mantle chaste<br>All about with precious pearls arrayed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">18 <br>A crown arrayed too wore that girl<br>Of margery-stones and others none,<br>With pinnacles of pure white pearl<br>That perfect flowers were figured on,<br>On head nought else her hair did furl,<br>And it framed, as it did round her run,<br>Her countenance grave for duke or earl,<br>And her hue as rewel ivory wan.<br>As shredded sheen of gold then shone<br>Her locks on shoulder loosly laid.<br>Her colour pure was surpassed by none<br>Of the pearls in purfling rare arrayed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">19<br>Arrayed was wristlet, and the hems were dight<br>At hands, at sides, at throat so fair<br>With no gem but the pearl all white<br>And burnished white her garments were;<br>But a wondrous pearl unstained and bright<br>She amidst her breast secure did bear;<br>Ere mind could fathom its worth and might<br>Man's reason thwarted would despair.<br>No tongue could in worthy words declare<br>The beauty that was there displayed,<br>It was so polished, pure, and fair,<br>That precious pearl on her arrayed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">20 <br>In pearls arrayed that maiden free<br>Beyond the stream came down the strand.<br>From here to Greece none as glad could be<br>As I on shore to see her stand,<br>Than aunt or niece more near to me:<br>The more did joy my heart expand.<br>She deigned to speak, so sweet was she,<br>Bowed low as ladies' ways demand.<br>With her crown of countless worth in hand<br>A gracious welcome she me bade.<br>My birth I blessed, who on the strand<br>To my love replied in pearls arrayed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">21 <br>'O Pearl!' said I, 'in pearls arrayed,<br>Are you my pearl whose loss I mourn?<br>Lament alone by night I made,<br>Much longing I have hid for thee forlorn,<br>Since to the grass you from me strayed.<br>While I pensive waste by weeping worn,<br>Your life of joy in the land is laid<br>Of Paradise by strife untorn.<br>What fate hath hither my jewel borne<br>And made me mourning's prisoner?<br>Since asunder we in twain were torn,<br>I have been a joyless jeweller.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">22 <br>That jewel in gems so excellent<br>Lifted her glance with eyes of grey,<br>Put on her crown of pearl-orient,<br>And gravely then began to say:<br>'Good sir, you have your speech mis-spent<br>to say your pearl is all away<br>that is in chest so choicely pent,<br>Even in this gracious garden gay,<br>Here always to linger and to play<br>Where regret nor grief e'er trouble her.<br>'Here is a casket safe' you would say.<br>If you were a gentle jeweller.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">23 <br>But jeweller gentle, if from you goes<br>Your joy through a gem that you held lief,<br>Methinks your mind toward madness flows<br>And frets for a fleeting cause of grief.<br>For what you lost was but a rose<br>That by nature failed after flowering brief;<br>Now the casket's virtues that it enclose<br>Prove it a pearl of price in chief;<br>And yet you have called your fate a thief<br>That of naught to aught hath fashioned her,<br>You grudge the healing of your grief,<br>You are no grateful jeweller.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">24 <br>Then a jewel methought had now come near,<br>And jewels the courteous speech she made.<br>'My blissful one,' quoth I, 'most dear,<br>My sorrows deep you have all allayed.<br>To pardon me I pray you here!<br>In the darkness I deemed my pearl was laid;<br>I have found it now, and shall make good cheer,<br>With it dwell in shining grove and glade,<br>And praise all the laws that my Lord hath made,<br>Who hath brought me near such bliss with her.<br>Now could I to reach you these waters wade,<br>I should be a joyful jeweller.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">25 <br>'Jeweller,' rejoined that jewel clean,<br>'Why jest ye men? How mad ye be!<br>Three things at once you have said, I ween:<br>Thoughtless, forsooth, were all the three,<br>You know now on earth what one doth mean;<br>Your words from your wits escaping flee:<br>You believe I live here on this green,<br>Because you can with eyes me see;<br>Again, you will in this land with me<br>Here dwell yourself, you now aver;<br>And thirdly, pass this water free:<br>That may no joyful jeweller.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">26 <br>I hold that jeweller worth little praise<br>Who well esteems what he sees with eye,<br>And much to blame his graceless wayus<br>Who believes our Lord would speak a lie.<br>He promised faithfully your lives to raise<br>Though fate decreed your flesh should die;<br>His words as nonsense ye appraise<br>Who approve of naught not seen with eye;<br>And that presumption doth imply,<br>Which all good men doth ill beseem,<br>On tale as true ne'er to rely<br>Save private reason right it deem.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">27 <br>Do you deem that you yourself maintain<br>Such words as man to God should dare?<br>You will dwell, you say, in this domain:<br>'Twere best for leave first offer prayer,<br>And yet that grace yo umight not gain.<br>Now over this water you wish to fare:<br>By another course you must that attain;<br>Your flesh shall in clay find colder lair,<br>For our heedless father did of old prepare<br>Its doom by Eden's grove and stream;<br>Through dismal death must each man fare,<br>Ere o're this deep him God redeem.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">28 <br>'If my doom you deem it, maiden sweet,<br>To mourn once more, then I must pine.<br>Now my lost one found again I greet,<br>Must bereavement new till death be mine?<br>Why must I at once both part and meet?<br>My precious pearl doth my pain design!<br>What use hath treasure but tears to repeat,<br>When one at its loss must again repine?<br>Now I care not though my days decline<br>Outlawed afar o'er land and stream;<br>When in my pearl no part is mine,<br>Only endless dolour one that may deem.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">29 <br>'But of woe, I deem, and deep distress<br>You speak,' she said. 'Why do you so?<br>Through loud lament when they lose the less<br>Oft many men the more forego.<br>'Twere better with cross yourself to bless,<br>Ever praising God in weal and woe;<br>For resentment gains you not a cress:<br>Who must needs endure, he may not say no!<br>For though you dance as any doe,<br>Rampant bray or raging scream,<br>When escape you cannot, to nor fro,<br>His doom you must abide, I deem.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">30 <br>Deem God unjust, the Lord indict,<br>From His way a foot He will not wend;<br>The relief amounts not to a mite,<br>Though gladness your grief may never end.<br>Cease then to wrangle, to speak in spite,<br>And swiftly seek Him as your friend, <br>You prayer His pity may excite,<br>So that Mercy shall her powers expend.<br>To you languor He may comfort lend,<br>And swiftly your griefs removed may seem;<br>For lament or rave, to submit pretend,<br>'Tis His to ordain what He right may deem.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">31 <br>Then I said, I deem, to that damosel:<br>'May I give no grievance to my Lord,<br>Rash fool, though blundering tale I tell.<br>My heart the pain of loss outpoured,<br>Gushing as water springs from well.<br>I commit me ever to His mercy's ward.<br>Rebuke me not with words so fell,<br>Though I erring stray, my dear adored!<br>But your comfort kindly to me accord,<br>In pity bethinking you of this:<br>For partner you did me pain award<br>On whom was founded all my bliss.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">32 <br>Both bliss and gried you have been to me,<br>But of woe far greater hath been my share.<br>You were caught away from all perils free,<br>But my pearl was gone, I knew not where;<br>My sorrow is softened now I it see.<br>When we parted, too, at one we were;<br>Now God forbid that we angry be!<br>We meet on our roads by chance so rare.<br>Though your converse courtly is and fair,<br>I am but mould and good manners miss.<br>Christ's mercy, Mary and John: I dare<br>Only on these to found my bliss.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">33 <br>In bliss you abide and happiness,<br>And I with woe an worn and grey;<br>Oft searing sorrows I possess,<br>Yet little heed to that you pay.<br>But now I here yourself address,<br>Without reproach I would you pray<br>To deign in sober words express<br>What life you lead the livelong day.<br>For delighted I am that your lot, you say,<br>So glorious and so glad now is;<br>There finds my joy its foremost way,<br>On that is founded all my bliss.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">34 <br>'Now bliss you ever bless!' she cried,<br>Lovely in limb, in hue so clear,<br>'And welcome here to walk and bide;<br>For now your words are to me dear.<br>Masterful mood and haughty pride,<br>I warn you, are bitterly hated here.<br>It doth not delight my Lord to chide,<br>For meek are all that dwell Him near.<br>So, when in His place you must appear,<br>Be devout in humble lowliness:<br>To my Lord, the Lamb, such a mien is dear,<br>On whom is founded all my bliss.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">35 <br>A blissful life you say is mine;<br>You wish to know in what degree.<br>Your pearl you know you did resign<br>When in young and tender years was she;<br>Yet my Lord, the Lamb, through power divine<br>Myself He chose His bride to be, <br>And crowned me queen in bliss to shine,<br>While days shall endure eternally.<br>Dowered with His heritage all is she<br>That is His love. I am wholly His:<br>On His glory, honour, and high degree<br>Are built and founded all my bliss.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">36<br>'O blissful!' said I, 'can this be true?<br>Be not displased if in speech I err!<br>Are you the queen of heavens blue,<br>Whom all must honour on earth that fare?<br>We believe that our Grace of Mary grew,<br>Who in virgin-bloom a babe did bear;<br>And claim her crown: who could this do<br>But once that surpassed her in favour fair?<br>And yet for unrivalled sweetness rare<br>We call her the Phoenix of Araby,<br>That her Maker let faultless wing the air,<br>Like to the Queen of Courtesy.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">37<br>'O courteous Queen,' that damsel said,<br>Kneeling on earth with uplifted face,<br>'Mother immaculate, and fairest maid,<br>Blessed beginner of every grace!'<br>Uprising then her prayer she stayed,<br>And there she spoke to me a space:<br>'Here many the prize they have gained are praid,<br>But usurpers, sir, here have no place.<br>That empress' realm doth heaven embrace,<br>From their heritage yet will none displace,<br>For she is the Queen of Courtesy.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">38 <br>'The court where the living God doth reign<br>Hath a virtue of its own being,<br>That each who may thereto attain<br>Of all the realm is queen or king,<br>Yet never shall other's right obtain,<br>But in other's good each glorying<br>And wishing each crown worth five again,<br>If amended might be so fair a thing.<br>But my Lady of whom did Jesu spring,<br>O'er us high she holds her empery,<br>And none that grieves of our following,<br>For she is the Queen of Courtesy.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">39<br>In courtesy we are members all<br>Of Jesus Christ, Saint Paul doth write:<br>As head, arm, leg, and navel small<br>To their body doth loyalty true unite,<br>So as limbs to their Master mystical<br>All Christian souls belong by right.<br>Now among your limbs can you find at all<br>Any tie or bond of hate or spite?<br>Your head doth not feel affront or slight<br>On your arm or finger though ring it see;<br>So we all proceed in love's delight<br>To king and queen by courtesy.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">40<br>'Courtesy,' I said, 'I do believe<br>And charity great dwells you among,<br>But may my words no wise you grieve,<br>...................................... .......................<br>You in heaven too high yourself conceive<br>To make you a queen who were so young.<br>What honour more might he achieve<br>Who in strife on earth was ever strong,<br>And lived his life in penance long<br>With his body's pain to get bliss for fee?<br>What greater glory could to him belong<br>Than king to be crowned by courtesy?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">41<br>That courtesy gives its gifts too free,<br>If it be sooth that you now say.<br>Two years you lived not on earth with me,<br>And God you could not please, nor pray<br>With Pater and Creed upon your knee -<br>And made a queen that very day!<br>I cannot believe, God helping me,<br>That God so far from right would stray.<br>Of a countess, damsel, I must say,<br>'Twere fair in heaven to find the grace,<br>Or of lady even of less array,<br>But a queen! It is too high a place.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">42<br>'Neither time nor place His grace confine',<br>Then said to me that maiden bright,<br>'For just is all that He doth assign,<br>And nothing can He work but right.<br>In God's true gospel, in words divine<br>That Matthew in your mass doth cite,<br>A tale he aptly doth design,<br>In parable saith of heaven's light:<br>'My realm on high I liken might<br>To a vineyard owner in this case.<br>The year had run to season right;<br>To dress the vines 'twas time and place.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">43<br>All labourers know when that time is due.<br>The master up full early rose<br>To hire him vineyard workers new;<br>And some to suit his needs he chose.<br>Together they pledge agreement true<br>For a penny a day, and forth each goes,<br>Travails and toils to tie and hew,<br>Binds and prunes and in order stows.<br>In forenoon the master to market goes,<br>And there finds men that idle laze.<br>'Why stand ye idle? he said to those.<br>'Do ye know not time of day nor place?'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">44<br>'This place we reached betimes ere day',<br>This answer from all alike he drew,<br>'Since sunrise standing here we stay,<br>And no man offers us work to do.'<br>'Go to my vineyard! Do what ye may!'<br>Said the lord, and made a bargain true:<br>'In deed and intent I to you will pay <br>What hire may justly by night accrue.'<br>They went to his vines and laboured too,<br>But the lord all day that way did pace,<br>And brought to his vineyard workers new,<br>Till daytime almost passed that place.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">45<br>In that place at time of evensong,<br>One hour before the set of sun,<br>He saw there idle labourers strong<br>And thus his earnest words did run:<br>'Why stand ye idle all day long?'<br>They said they chance of hire had none.<br>'Go to my vineyard, yeoman young,<br>And work and do what may be done!'<br>The hour grew late and sank the sun,<br>Dusk came o'er the world apace;<br>He called them to claim the wage they had won,<br>For time of day had passed that place.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">46<br>The time in that place he well did know;<br>He called: 'Sir steward, the people pay!<br>Give them hire that I them owe.<br>Moreover, that none reproach me may,<br>Set them all in a single row,<br>And to each alike give a penny a day;<br>Begin at the last that stands below,<br>Till to the first you make your way.'<br>Then the first began to complain and say<br>That they had laboured long and sore:<br>'These but one hour in stress did stay;<br>It seems to us we should get more.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">47<br>More have we earned, we think it true,<br>Who have borne the daylong heat indeed,<br>Than these who hours have worked not two,<br>And yet you our equals have decreed.'<br>One such the lord then turned him to:<br>'My friend, I will not curtail your meed.<br>Go now and take what is your due!<br>For a penny I hired you as agreed,<br>Why now to wrangle do you proceed?<br>Was it not a penny you bargained for?<br>To surpass his bargain may no man plead.<br>Why then will you ask for more?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">48<br>Nay, more - am I not allowed in gift <br>To dispose of mine as I please to do?<br>Or your eye to evil, maybe, you lift,<br>For I none betray and I am true?'<br>'Thus I', said Christ, 'shall the order shift:<br>The last shall come first to take his due,<br>And the first come last, be he never so swift;<br>For many are called, but the favourites few.'<br>Thus the poor get ever their portion too,<br>Though late they came and little bore;<br>And though to their labour little accrue,<br>The mercy of God is much the more.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">49<br>More is my joy and bliss herein,<br>The flower of my life, my lady's height,<br>Than all the folk in the world might win,<br>Did they seek award on ground of right.<br>Though 'twas but now that I entered in,<br>And came to the vineyard by eveing's light,<br>First with my hire did my Lord begin;<br>I was paid at once to the furthest mite.<br>Yet others in toil without respite<br>That had laboured and sweated long of yore,<br>He did not yet with hire requite,<br>Nor will, perchance, for years yet more.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">50<br>Then more I said and spoke out plain:<br>'Unreasonable is what you say.<br>Ever ready God's justice on high doth reign,<br>Or a fable doth Holy Writ purvey.<br>The Psalms a cogent verse contain,<br>Which puts a point that one must weigh:<br>'High King, who all dost foreordain,<br>His deserts Thou dost to each repay.'<br>Now if daylong one did steadfast stay,<br>And you to payment came him before,<br>Then lesser work can earn more pay;<br>And the longer you reckon, the less hath more.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">51<br>'Of more and less in God's domains<br>No question arises,' said that maid,<br>'For equal hire there each one gains,<br>Be geurdon great or small him paid. <br>No churl is our Chieftain that in bounty reigns,<br>Be soft or hard by Him purveyed;<br>As water of dike His gifts He drains,<br>Or streams from a deep by drought unstayed.<br>Free is the pardon to him conveyed<br>Who in fear to the Saviour in sin did bow;<br>No bars from bliss will for such be made,<br>For the grace of God is great enow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">52<br>But now to defeat me you debate<br>That wrongly my penny I have taken here;<br>Deserve not hire at price so dear.<br>Where heard you ever of man relate<br>Who, pious in prayer from year to year,<br>Did not somehow forfeit the guerdon great<br>Sometime of Heaven's glory clear?<br>Nay, wrong men work, from right they veer,<br>And ever the ofter the older, I trow.<br>Mercy and grace must then them steer,<br>For the grace of God is great enow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">53<br>But enow have the innocent of grace.<br>As soon as born, in lawful line<br>Baptismal waters them embrace;<br>Then they are brought unto the vine.<br>Anon the day with darkened face<br>Doth toward the night of death decline.<br>They wrought no wrong while in that place,<br>And his workmen then pays the Lord divine.<br>They were there; they worked at his design;<br>Why should He not their toil allow,<br>Yea, first to them their hire assign?<br>For the grace of God is great enow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">54<br>Enow 'tis known that Man's high kind<br>At first for perfect bliss was bred.<br>Our eldest father that grace resigned<br>Through an apple upon which he fed.<br>We were all damned, for that food assigned<br>To die in grief, all joy to shed,<br>And after in flames of hell confined<br>To dwell for ever unrespited.<br>But soon a healing hither sped:<br>Rich blood ran on rough rood-bough,<br>And water fair. In that hour of dread<br>The grace of God grew great enow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">55 <br>Enow there went forth from that well<br>Water and blood from wounds so wide:<br>The blood redeemed us from pains of hell<br>Of the second death the bond untied;<br>The water is baptism, truth to tell,<br>That the spear so grimly ground let glide.<br>It washes away the trespass fell<br>By which Adam drowned us in deathly tide.<br>No bars in the world us from Bliss divide<br>In blessed hour restored, I trow,<br>Save those that He hath drawn aside;<br>And the grace of God is great enow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">56<br>Grace enow may the man receive<br>Who sins anew, if he repent;<br>But craving it he must sigh and grieve<br>And abide what pains are consequent.<br>But reason that right can never leave<br>Evermore preserves the innocent;<br>'Tis a judgement God did never give<br>That the guiltless should ever have punishment.<br>The guilty, contrite and penitent,<br>Through mercy may to grace take flight;<br>But he that to treachery never bent<br>In innocence is saved by right.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">57<br>It is right thus by reason, as in this case<br>I learn, to save these two from ill;<br>The righteous man shall see His face,<br>Come unto him the harmless will.<br>This point the Psalms in a passage raise:<br>'Who, Lord, shall climb Thy lofty hill,<br>Or rest within Thy holy place?'<br>He doth the answer swift fulfil:<br>'Who wrought with hands no harm nor ill,<br>Who is of heart both clean and bright,<br>His steps shall there be steadfast still':<br>The innocent ever is saved by right.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">58<br>The righteous too, one many maintain,<br>He shall to that noble tower repair,<br>Who leads not his life in folly vain,<br>Nor guilefully doth to neighbour swear.<br>That Wisdom did honour once obtain<br>For such doth Solomon declare:<br>She pressed him on by ways made plain<br>And showed him afar God's kingdom fair,<br>As if saying: 'That lovely island there<br>That mayst thou win, be thou brave in fight.'<br>But to say this doubtless one may dare:<br>The innocent ever is saved by right.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">59<br>To righteous men - have you seen it there? -<br>In the Psalter David a verse applied:<br>'Do not, Lord, Thy servant to judgement bear;<br>For to Thee none living is justified.'<br>So when to that Court you must repair<br>Where all our cases shall be tried,<br>If on right you stand, lest you trip beware,<br>Warned by these words that I espied.<br>But He on rood that bleeding died,<br>Whose hands the nail did harshly smite,<br>Grant you may pass, when you are tried,<br>By innocence and not by right.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">60<br>Let him that can rightly read in lore,<br>Look in the Book and learn thereby <br>How Jesus walked the world of yore,<br>And people pressed their babes Him nigh,<br>For joy and health from Him did pour.<br>'Our children touch!' they humbly cry,<br>'Let be!' his disciples rebuked them sore,<br>And to many would approach deny.<br>Then Jesus sweetly did reply:<br>'Nay! let children by me alight;<br>For such is heaven prepared on high!'<br>The innocent ever is saved by right.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">61<br>Then Jesus summoned his servants mild,<br>And said His realm no man might win,<br>Unless he came there as a child;<br>Else never should he come therein.<br>Harmless, true, and undefiled,<br>Without mark or mar of soiling sin,<br>When such knock at those portals piled,<br>Quick for them men will the gate unpin.<br>That bliss unending dwells therein<br>That the jeweller sought, above gems did rate,<br>And sold all he had to clothe him in,<br>To purchase a pearl immaculate.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">62<br>This pearl immaculate purchased dear <br>The jeweller gave all his goods to gain<br>Is like the realm of heaven's sphere:<br>So said the Lord of land and main;<br>For it is flawless, clean and clear,<br>Endlessly round, doth joy contain,<br>And is shared by all the righteous here.<br>Lo! amid my breast it doth remain;<br>There my Lord, the Lamb that was bleeding slain,<br>In token of peace it placed in state.<br>I bid you the wayward world disdain<br>And procure your pearl immaculate!'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">63<br>'Immaculate Pearl in pearls unstained,<br>Who bear of precious pearls the prize,<br>Your figure fair for you who feigned?<br>Who wrought your robe, he was full wise!<br>Your beauty was never from nature gained;<br>Pygmalion did ne'er your face devise;<br>In Aristotle's learning is contained<br>Of these properties' nature no surmise;<br>Your hue the flower-de-luce defies,<br>Your angel-bearing is of grace so great.<br>What office, purest, me apprise<br>Doth bear this pearl immaculate?'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">64<br>'My immaculate Lamb, my final end<br>Beloved, Who all can heal,' said she,<br>'Chose me as spouse, did to bridal bend<br>That once would have seemed unmeet to be.<br>From your weeping world when I did wend<br>He called me to his felicity:<br>'Come hither to me, sweetest friend,<br>For no blot nor spot is found in thee!'<br>Power and beauty he gave to me;<br>In his blood he washed my weeds in state,<br>Crowned me clean in virginity,<br>And arrayed me in pearls immaculate.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">65<br>'Why, immaculate bride of brightest flame,<br>Who royalty have so rich and bare,<br>Of what kind can He be, the Lamb you name,<br>Who would you His wedded wife declare?<br>Over others all hath climbed your fame,<br>In lady's life with Him to fare.<br>For Christ have lived in care and blame<br>Many comely maids with comb in hair;<br>Yet the prize from all those brave you bear,<br>And all debar from bridal state,<br>All save yourself so proud and fair,<br>A matchless maid immaculate.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">66<br>'Immaculate, without a stain,<br>Flawless I am', said that fair queen;<br>'And that I may with grace maintain,<br>But 'matchless' I said not nor do mean.<br>As brides of the Lamb in bliss we reign,<br>Twelve times twelve thousand strong, I ween,<br>As Apocalypse reveals it plain:<br>In a throng they there by John were seen;<br>On Zion's hill, that mount serene,<br>The apostle had dream divine of them<br>On that summit for marriage robed all clean<br>In the city of New Jerusalem.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">67<br>Of Jerusalem my tale doth tell,<br>If you will know what His nature be,<br>My Lamb, my Lord, my dear Jewel,<br>My Joy, my Bliss, my Truelove free.<br>Isaiah the prophet once said well<br>In pity for His humility:<br>'That glorious Guiltless they did fell<br>Without cause or charge of felony,<br>As sheep to the slaughter led was He,<br>And as lamb the shearer in hand doth hem<br>His mouth he closed without plaint or plea,<br>When the Jews Him judged in Jerusalem.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">68<br>In Jerusalem was my Truelove slain,<br>On the rood by ruffians fierce was rent;<br>Willing to suffer all our pain<br>To Himself our sorrows sad He lent.<br>With cruel blows His face was flain<br>That was to behold so excellent:<br>He for sin to be set at naught did deign,<br>Who of sin Himself was innocent.<br>Beneath the scourge and thorns He bent,<br>And stretched on a cross's brutal stem<br>As meek as lamb made no lament,<br>And died for us in Jerusalem.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">69<br>In Jerusalem, Jordan, and Galilee,<br>As there baptized the good Saint John,<br>With Isaiah well did his words agree.<br>When to meet him once had Jesus gone<br>He spake of Him this prophecy:<br>'Lo, the Lamb of God whom our trust is on!<br>From the grievous sins He sets us free<br>That all this world hath daily done.'<br>He wrought himself yet never one,<br>Though He smirched himself with all of them.<br>Who can tell the Fathering of that Son<br>That died for us in Jerusalem?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">70<br>In Jerusalem as lamb they knew<br>And twice thus took my Truelove dear,<br>As in prophets both in record true,<br>For His meekness and His gentle cheer.<br>The third time well is matched thereto,<br>In Apocalypse 'tis written clear:<br>Where sat the saints, Him clear to view<br>Amidst the throne the Apostle dear<br>Saw loose the leaves of the book and shear<br>The seven signets sewn on them.<br>At that sight all folk there bowed in fear<br>In hell, in earth, and Jerusalem.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">71<br>Jerusalem's Lamb had never stain<br>Of other hue than whiteness fair;<br>There blot nor blemish could remain,<br>So white the wool, so rich and rare.<br>Thus every soul that no soil did gain<br>His comely wife doth the Lamb declare;<br>Though each day He a host obtain,<br>No grudge nor grievance do we bear,<br>But for each one five we wish there were.<br>The more the merrier, so God me bless!<br>Our love doth thrive where many fare<br>In honour more and never less.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">72<br>To less of bliss may none us bring<br>Who bear this pearl upon each breast,<br>For ne'er could they think of quarrelling<br>Of spotless pearls who bear the crest.<br>Though the clods may to our corses cling,<br>And for woe ye wail bereaved of rest,<br>From one death all our trust doth spring<br>In knowledge complete by us possessed.<br>The Lamb us gladdens, and, our grief redressed,<br>Doth at every Mass with joy us bless.<br>Here each hath bliss supreme and best,<br>Yet no one's honour is ever the less.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">73<br>Lest less to trust my tale you hold,<br>In Apocalypse 'tis writ somewhere:<br>'The Lamb', saith John, 'I could behold<br>On Zion standing proud and fair;<br>With him maidens a hundred-thousand fold,<br>And four and forty thousand were,<br>Who all upon their brows inscrolled<br>The Lamb's name and His Father's bare.<br>A shout then I heard from heaven there,<br>Like many floods met in pouring press;<br>And as thunder in darkling tors doth blare,<br>That noise, I believe, was nowise less.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">74<br>But nonetheless, though it harshly roared,<br>And echo loud though it was to hear,<br>I heard them note then new accord,<br>A delight as lovely to listening ear<br>As harpers harping on harps afford.<br>This new song now they sang full clear,<br>With resounding notes in noble accord<br>Making in choir their musics dear.<br>Before God's very throne drawn near<br>And the Beasts to Him bowed in lowliness<br>And the ancient Elders grave of cheer<br>They sang their song there, nonetheless.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">75<br>Yet nonetheless were none so wise<br>For all the arts that they ever knew<br>Of that song who could a phrase devise,<br>Save those of the Lamb's fair retinue;<br>For redeemed and removed from earthly eyes,<br>As firstling fruits that to God are due,<br>To the noble Lamb they are allies,<br>Being like to Him in mien and hue;<br>For no lying word nor tale untrue<br>Ever touched their tongues despite duress.<br>Ever close that company pure shall sue<br>That Master immaculate, and never less.''</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">76<br>'My thanks may none the less you find,<br>My Pearl', quoth I, 'though I question pose.<br>I should not try your lofty mind,<br>Whom Christ to bridal chamber chose.<br>I am but dirt and dust in kind,<br>And you a rich and radiant rose<br>Here by this blissful bank reclined<br>Where life's delight unfading grows.<br>Now, Lady, your heart sincere enclose,<br>And I would ask one thing express,<br>And though it clown uncouth me shows,<br>My prayer disdain not, nevertheless.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">77<br>I nonetheless my appeal declare,<br>If you to do this may well deign,<br>Deny you not my piteous prayer,<br>As you are glorious without a stain.<br>No home in castle-wall do ye share,<br>No mansion to meet in, no domain?<br>Of Jerusalem you speak the royal and fair,<br>Where David on regal throne did reign;<br>It abides not here on hill nor plain,<br>But in Judah is that noble plot.<br>As under moon ye have no stain<br>Your home should be without a spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">78<br>This spotless troop of which you tell,<br>This thronging press many-thousandfold,<br>Ye doubtless a mighty citadel<br>Must have your number great to hold:<br>For jewels so lovely 'twould not be well<br>That flock so fair should have no fold!<br>Yet by these banks where a while I dwell<br>I nowhere about any house behold.<br>To gaze on this glorious stream you strolled<br>And linger alone now, do you not?<br>If elsewhere you have stout stronghold,<br>Now guide me to that goodly spot!'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">79<br>'That spot', that peerless maid replied,<br>'In Judah's land of which you spake,<br>Is the city to which the Lamb did ride,<br>To suffer sore there for Man's sake.<br>The Old Jerusalem is implied,<br>For old sin's bond He there let break.<br>But the New, that God sent down to glide,<br>The Apocalypse in account doth take. <br>The Lamb that no blot ever black shall make<br>Doth there His lovely throng allot,<br>And as His flock all stains forsake<br>So His mansion is unmarred by spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">80<br>There are two spots. To speak of these:<br>They both the name 'Jerusalem' share;<br>'The City of God' or 'Sight of Peace', <br>These meanings only doth that bear.<br>In the first it once the Lamb did please<br>Our peace by His suffering to repair;<br>In the other naught is found but peace<br>That shall last for ever without impair.<br>To that high city we swiftly fare<br>As soon as our flesh is laid to rot;<br>Ever grow shall the bliss and glory there<br>For the host within that hath no spot.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">81<br>'O spotless maiden kind!' I cried<br>To that lovely flower, 'O lead me there,<br>To see where blissful you abide,<br>To that goodly place let me repair!' <br>'God will forbid that,' she replied,<br>'His tower to enter you may not dare.<br>But the Lamb hath leave to me supplied<br>For a sigh thereof by favour rare:<br>From without on that precinct pure to stare<br>But foot within to venture not;<br>In the street you have no strength to fare,<br>Unless clean you be without a spot.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">82<br>If I this spot shall to you unhide,<br>Turn up towards this water's head,<br>While I escort you on this side,<br>Until your ways to a hill have led.' <br>No longer would I then abide,<br>But shrouded by leafy boughs did tread,<br>Until from a hill I there espied<br>A glimpse of that city, as forth I sped.<br>Beyond the river below me spread<br>Brighter than the sun with beams it shone;<br>In the Apocalypse may its form be read,<br>As it describes the apostle John.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">83<br>As John the apostle it did view,<br>I saw that city of great renown,<br>Jerusalem royally arrayed and new,<br>As it was drawn from heaven down.<br>Of gold refined in fire to hue<br>Of glittering glass was that shining town;<br>Fair gems beneath were joined as due<br>In courses twelve, on the base laid down<br>That with tenoned tables twelve they crown:<br>A single stone was each tier thereon,<br>As well describes this wondrous town<br>In apocalypse the apostle John.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">84<br>These stones doth John in Writ disclose;<br>I knew their names as he doth tell:<br>As jewel first the jasper rose,<br>And first at the base I saw it well,<br>On the lowest course it greenly glows;<br>On the second stage doth sapphire dwell;<br>Chalcedony on the third tier shows,<br>A flawless, pure, and pale jewel;<br>The emerald fourth so green of shell;<br>The sardonyx, the fifth it shone,<br>The ruby sixth: he saw it well<br>In the Apocalypse, the apostle John.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">85<br>To them John then joined the chrysolite,<br>The seventh gem in the ascent;<br>The eighth the beryl clear and white;<br>The twin-hued topaz as ninth was pent;<br>Tenth the chrysoprase formed the flight;<br>Eleventh was jacinth excellent;<br>The twelfth, most trusty in every plight,<br>The amethyst blue with purple blent.<br>Sheer from those tiers the wall then went <br>Of jasper like glass that glistening shone;<br>I knew it, for thus did it present<br>In the Apocalypse the apostle John.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">86<br>As John described, I broad and sheer<br>These twelve degrees saw rising there;<br>Above the city square did rear<br>(Its length with breadth and height compare);<br>The streets of gold as glass all clear,<br>The wall of jasper that gleamed like glair;<br>With all precious stones that might there appear<br>Adorned within the dwellings were.<br>Of that domain each side all square<br>Twelve thousand furlongs held then on,<br>As in height and breadth, in length did fare,<br>For it measured saw the aspostle John.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">87<br>As John hath writ, I saw yet more:<br>Each quadrate wall there had three gates,<br>So in compass there were three times four,<br>The portals o'erlaid with richest plates;<br>A single pearl was every door,<br>A pearl whose perfection ne'er abates;<br>And each inscribed a name there bore<br>Of Israel's children by their dates:<br>Their times of birth each allocates,<br>Ever first the eldest thereon is hewn.<br>Such light every street illuminates<br>They have need of neither sun nor moon.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">88<br>Of sun nor moon they had no need,<br>For God Himself was their sunlight;<br>The Lamb their lantern was indeed<br>And through Him blazed that city bright<br>That unearthly clear did no light impede;<br>Through wall and hall thus passed my sight.<br>The Throne on high there might one heed,<br>With all its rich adornment dight,<br>As John in chosen words did write.<br>High God Himself sat on that throne,<br>Whence forth a river ran with light<br>Outshining both the sun and moon.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">89<br>Neither sun nor moon ever shone so sweet<br>As the pouring flood from that court that flowed;<br>Swiftly it swept through every street,<br>And no filth nor soil nor slime it showed.<br>No church was there the sight to greet,<br>Nor chapel nor temple there ever abode:<br>The Almighty was their minister meet;<br>Refreshment the Victim Lamb bestowed.<br>The gates ever open to every road<br>Were never yet shut from noon to noon;<br>There enters none to find abode<br>Who bears any spot beneath the moon.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">90<br>The moon therefrom may gain no might,<br>Too spotty is she, of form too hoar;<br>Moreover there comes never night:<br>Why should the moon in circle soar<br>And compare her with that peerless light<br>That shines upon that water's shore?<br>The planets are in too poor a plight,<br>Yea, the sun himself too pale and frore.<br>On shining trees where those waters pour<br>Twelve fruits of life there ripen soon;<br>Twelve times a year they bear a store,<br>And renew them anew in every moon.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">91 <br>Such marvels as neath the moon upraised<br>A fleshly heart could not endure<br>I saw, who on that castle gazed;<br>Such wonders did its castle gazed;<br>I stood there still as quail all dazed;<br>Its wondrous form did me allure,<br>That rest nor toil I felt, amazed,<br>And ravished by that radiance pure.<br>For with conscience clear I you assure,<br>If man embodied had gained that boon,<br>Though sages all essayed his cure,<br>His life had been lost beneath the moon.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">92 <br>As doth the moon in might arise,<br>Ere down must daylight leave the air,<br>So, suddenly, in a wondrous wise,<br>Of procession long I was aware.<br>Unheralded to my surprise<br>That city of royal renown so fair<br>Was with virgins filled in the very guise<br>Of my blissful one with crown on hair.<br>All crowned in manner like they were,<br>In pearls appointed, and weeds of white,<br>and bound on breast did each one bear<br>The blissful pearl with great delight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">93 <br>With great delight in line they strolled<br>On golden ways that gleamed like glass;<br>A hundred thousands were there, I hold,<br>And all to match their livery was;<br>The gladdest face could none have told.<br>the Lamb before did proudly pass<br>With seven horns of clear red gold;<br>As pearls of price His raimant was.<br>To the Throne now drawn they pacing pass:<br>No crowding, though great their host in white,<br>But gentle as modest maids at Mass,<br>So lead they on with great delight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">94<br>The delight too great were to recall<br>That at His coming forth did swell.<br>When He approached those elders all<br>On their faces at His feet they fell;<br>There summoned hosts angelical <br>An incense cast of sweetest smell:<br>New glory and joy then forth did fall,<br>All sang to praise that fair Jewel.<br>The strain could strike through earth to hell<br>That the Virtues of heaven in joy endite.<br>With His host to laud the Lamb as well<br>In deed I found a great delight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">95 <br>Delight the Lamb to behold with eyes<br>Then moved my mind with wonder more:<br>The best was He, blithest, most dear to prize<br>Of whom I e'er heard tales of yore;<br>So wondrous white was all His guise,<br>So noble Himself He so meekly bore.<br>But by his heart a wound my eyes<br>Saw wide and wet; the fleece it tore,<br>From His white side His blood did pour.<br>Alas! thought I, who did that spite?<br>His breast should have burned with anguish sore,<br>Ere in that deed one took delight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">96 <br>The Lamb's delight to doubt, I ween,<br>None wished; though wound He sore displayed,<br>In His face no sign thereof was seen,<br>In His glance such glorious gladness played.<br>I marked among His host serene,<br>How life in full on each was laid--<br>Then saw I there my little queen<br>That I thought stood by me in the glade!<br>Lord! great was the merriment she made,<br>Among her peers who was so white.<br>That vision made me think to wade<br>For love-longing in great delight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">97 <br>Delight there pierced my eye and ear,<br>In my mortal mind a madness reigned;<br>When I saw her beauty I would be near,<br>Though beyond the stream she was retained.<br>I thought that naught could interfere,<br>Could strike me back to halt constrained,<br>From plunge in stream would none me steer,<br>Though I died ere I swam o'er what remained.<br>But as wild in the water to start I strained,<br>On my intent did quaking seize;<br>From that aim recalled I was detained:<br>It was not as my Prince did please.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">98<br>It pleased Him not that I leapt o'er<br>Those marvellous bounds my madness swayed.<br>Though headlong haste me heedless bore,<br>Yet swift arrest was on me made,<br>For right as I rushed then to the shore<br>That fury made my dream to fade.<br>I woke in that garden as before,<br>My head upon that mound was laid<br>Where once to earth my pearl had strayed.<br>I stretched, and fell in great unease,<br>And sighing to myself I prayed:<br>'Now all be as that Prince may please.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">99 <br>It pleased me ill outcast to be<br>So suddenly from that region fair<br>Where living beauty I could see.<br>A swoon of longing smote me there,<br>And I cried aloud then piteously:<br>'O Pearl, renowned beyond compare!<br>How dear was all that you said to me,<br>That vision true while I did share.<br>If it be true and sooth to swear<br>That in garland gay you are set at ease,<br>Then happy I, though chained in care,<br>That you that Prince indeed do please.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">100<br>To please that Prince had I always bent,<br>Desired no more than was my share,<br>And loyally been obedient,<br>As the Pearl me prayed so debonair,<br>I before God's face might have been sent,<br>In his mysteries further maybe to fare.<br>But with fortune no man is content<br>That rightly he may claim and bear; <br>So robbed of realms immortally fair<br>Too soon my joy did sorrow seize.<br>Lord! mad are they who against Thee dare<br>Or purpose what Thee may displease!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">101 <br>To please that Prince, or be pardon shown,<br>May Christian good with ease design;<br>For day and night I have Him known<br>A God, a Lord, a Friend divine.<br>This chance I met on mound where prone<br>In grief for my pearl I would repine;<br>With Christ's sweet blessing and mine own<br>I then to God it did resign.<br>May He that in form of bread and wine<br>By priest upheld each day one sees,<br>Us inmates of His house divine<br>Make precious pearls Himself to please.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="/comments.php?id=346067" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Amen Amen</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br/></a><a href="https://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="https://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Anonymous+Olde+English">Anonymous Olde English</a></strong></div>

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