Henry Vaughan

“I saw Eternity the other night, Like a great ring of pure and endless light.”

“They are all gone into the world of light! And I alone sit lingering here.”

“My soul, there is a country Far beyond the stars.”

“How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean Are thy returns! even as the flowers in spring.”

“He that hath found some fledged bird's nest may know At first sight if the bird be flown; But what fair well or grove he sings in now, That is to him unknown.”

“Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move.”

“And yet, as angels in some brighter dreams Call to the soul when man doth sleep, So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes, And into glory peep.”

“Dear, beauteous death! the jewel of the just, Shining nowhere, but in the dark.”

“There is in God (some say) A deep, but dazzling darkness.”

“Man is the shuttle, to whose winding quest And passage through these looms God ordered motion, but ordained no rest.”

“I see them walking in an air of glory, Whose light doth trample on my days.”

“Silence, and stealth of days! 'tis now Since thou art gone, twelve hundred hours.”

“So hills and valleys into singing break, And though poor stones have neither speech nor tongue, While active winds and streams both run and speak, Yet stones are deep in admiration.”

“Calm and unhaunted as is Thy dark tent, Whose peace but by some Angel's wing is rent.”