Thomas Traherne

These little limbs,
These eyes and hands which here I find,
These rosy cheeks wherewith my life begins,
Where have ye been

HT is but preparative
The sight Is deep and infinite, Ah me
’tis all the glory, love, light, space, Joy, beauty and variety That doth adorn the Godhead’s dwelling-place; ’Tis all that eye can see
Even trades themselves seen in...

O Nectar
O delicious stream
O ravishing and only pleasure
Where        Shall such another theme  Inspire my tongue with joys or please mine ear

Give but to things their true esteem,
And those which now so vile and worthless
Will so much fill and please the
That we shall there the only riches find

His Power bounded, greater is in might,
Than if let loose, 'twere wholly infinite
He could have made an endless sea by this,
But then it had not been a sea of bliss

A learned and a happy ignorance Divided me From all the vanity, From all the sloth, care, pain, and sorrow that advance The madness and the misery Of men
No error, no distraction I Saw soil the earth, or overcloud the sky
I knew not that...

Sure Man was born to meditate on things, And to contemplate the eternal springs Of God and Nature, glory, bliss, and pleasure; That life and love might be his Heavenly treasure; And therefore speechless made at first, that
Might in himself pr...

For giving me desire,
An eager thirst, a burning ardent fire,
A virgin infant flame,
A love with which into the world I came,

That childish thoughts such joys inspire,
Doth make my wonder, and His glory higher,
His bounty, and my wealth
more

……
An unperceived donor gave all pleasures;
There nothing was but I, and all my treasures
In that fair world,

In making bodies Love could not
Itself, or art, unless it made them less
O what a monster had in man been seen,
Had every thumb or toe a mountain been

Sin
O only fatal woe,
That mak'st me sad and mourning go
That all my joys dost spoil,

But that which most I wonder at, which most I did esteem my bliss, which most I boast, And ever shall enjoy, is that within I felt no stain, nor spot of sin
No darkness then did overshade, But all within was pure and bright, No guilt did crus...

My Body being Dead, my Limbs unknown;
Before I skilled [sic] to prize Those living Stars mine Eyes,
Before my Tongue or Cheeks were to me shown,
Before I knew my Hands were mine,

As in the house I sate,
Alone and desolate, No creature but the fire and I,
The chimney and the stool,
I lift mine eye Up to the wall, And in the silent hall, Saw nothing mine But some few cups and dishes shine, The table and the wo...

My naked simple Life was I; That Act so strongly shin’d Upon the earth, the sea, the sky, It was the substance of my mind; The sense itself was I
I felt no dross nor matter in my soul, No brims nor borders, such as in a bowl We see
My ...