Well meaning readers! you that come as
And catch the pretious name this piece pretends;
Make not too much hast to’
That fair-cheek’t fallacy of fire.
That is a Seraphim, they say And this the great Teresia.
Readers, be rul’d by me; and
Here a well-plac’t and wise mistake.
You must transpose the picture quite,
And spell it wrong to read it right; Read Him for her, and her for him;
And call the Saint the Seraphim. Painter, what didst thou
To put her dart into his hand!
See, even the yeares and size of him Showes this the mother Seraphim.
This is the mistresse flame; and duteous
Her happy fire-works, here, comes down to see.
O most poor-spirited of men!
Had thy cold Pencil kist her Pen Thou couldst not so unkindly
To show us This faint shade for Her.
Why man, this speakes pure mortall frame;
And mockes with female Frost love’s manly flame.
One would suspect thou meant’st to print Some weak, inferiour, woman saint.
But had thy pale-fac’t purple
Fire from the burning cheeks of that bright
Thou wouldst on her have heap’t up
That could be found Seraphicall; What e’re this youth of fire weares fair,
Rosy fingers, radiant hair,
Glowing cheek, and glistering wings,
All those fair and flagrant things,
But before all, that fiery Dart Had fill’d the Hand of this great Heart. Doe then as equall right requires,
Since His the blushes be, and her’s the fires,
Resume and rectify thy rude design;
Undresse thy Seraphim into Mine. Redeem this injury of thy art;
Give Him the vail, give her the dart. Give Him the vail; that he may
The Red cheeks of a rivall’d lover.
Asham’d that our world, now, can show Nests of new Seraphims here below. Give her the Dart for it is she(Fair youth) shootes both thy shaft and
Say, all ye wise and well-peirc’t
That live and dy amidst her darts, What is’t your tastfull spirits doe
In that rare life of Her, and love?
Say and bear wittnes.
Sends she notA Seraphim at every shott?
What magazins of immortall Armes there shine! Heavn’s great artillery in each love-spun line.
Give then the dart to her who gives the flame;
Give him the veil, who gives the shame. But if it be the frequent
Of worst faults to be fortunate; If all’s præscription; and proud
Hearkens not to an humble song;
For all the gallantry of him,
Give me the suffring Seraphim.
His be the bravery of all those Bright things. The glowing cheekes, the glistering wings;
The Rosy hand, the radiant Dart;
Leave Her alone The Flaming Heart. Leave her that; and thou shalt leave
Not one loose shaft but love’s whole quiver. For in love’s feild was never foundA nobler weapon then a Wound.
Love’s passives are his activ’st part.
The wounded is the wounding heart.
O Heart! the æquall poise of love’s both parts Bigge alike with wound and darts.
Live in these conquering leaves; live all the same;
And walk through all tongues one triumphant Flame.
Live here, great Heart; and love and dy and kill;
And bleed and wound; and yeild and conquer still. Let this immortall life wherere it
Walk in a crowd of loves and
Let mystick Deaths wait on’t; and wise soules
The love-slain wittnesses of this life of thee.
O sweet incendiary! shew here thy art, Upon this carcasse of a hard, cold, hart,
Let all thy scatter’d shafts of light, that
Among the leaves of thy larg Books of day,
Combin’d against this Brest at once break
And take away from me my self and sin, This gratious Robbery shall thy bounty be;
And my best fortunes such fair spoiles of me.
O thou undanted daughter of desires!
By all thy dowr of Lights and Fires;
By all the eagle in thee, all the dove; By all thy lives and deaths of love;
By thy larg draughts of intellectuall day,
And by thy thirsts of love more large then they;
By all thy brim-fill’d Bowles of feirce
By thy last Morning’s draught of liquid fire; By the full kingdome of that finall
That seiz’d thy parting Soul, and seal’d thee his;
By all the heav’ns thou hast in him(Fair sister of the Seraphim!)By all of Him we have in Thee; Leave nothing of my Self in me.
Let me so read thy life, that
Unto all life of mine may dy.
Form: couplets75.
The poem appeared in a shorter form first in the second edition of Steps to the Temple. 95symbols of strength and gentleness, or, perhaps, of wisdom and mercy. 97. intellectual day: pure thought.
