| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Soul’s Haven | | By Nicholas Breton (1545–1626) |
| | | THE WORLDLY prince doth in his sceptre hold | |
| A kind of heaven in his authorities; | |
| The wealthy miser in his mass of gold | |
| Makes to his soul a kind of Paradise; | |
| The epicure that eats and drinks all day, | 5 |
| Accounts no heaven but in his hellish routs; | |
| And she whose beauty seems a sunny day, | |
| Makes up her heaven but in her baby’s clouts. | |
| But, my sweet God, I seek no prince’s power, | |
| No miser’s wealth, nor beauty’s fading gloss, | 10 |
| Which pamper sin, whose sweets are inward sour, | |
| And sorry gain that breed the spirit’s loss: | |
| No, my dear Lord, let my heaven only be | |
| In my love’s service, but to live to thee. | | | | |
|
|
