| |
| NEWS from a foreign country came, | |
| As if my treasure and my wealth lay there: | |
| So much it did my heart enflame | |
| ’Twas wont to call my soul into mine ear, | |
| Which thither went to meet | 5 |
| The approaching sweet, | |
| And on the threshold stood, | |
| To entertain the unknown Good. | |
| It hovered there | |
| As if ’twould leave mine ear, | 10 |
| And was so eager to embrace | |
| The joyful tidings as they came, | |
| ’Twould almost leave its dwelling-place, | |
| To entertain that same. | |
| |
| As if the tidings were the things, | 15 |
| My very joys themselves, my foreign treasure, | |
| Or else did bear them on their wings; | |
| With so much joy they came, with so much pleasure. | |
| My Soul stood at that gate | |
| To recreate | 20 |
| Itself with bliss: and to | |
| Be pleased with speed. A fuller view | |
| It fain would take, | |
| Yet journeys back would make | |
| Unto my heart: as if ’twere fain | 25 |
| Go out to meet, yet stay within | |
| To fit a place, to entertain, | |
| And bring the tidings in. | |
| |
| What sacred instinct did inspire | |
| My Soul in childhood with a hope so strong? | 30 |
| What secret force moved my desire | |
| To expect my joys beyond the seas, so young? | |
| Felicity I knew | |
| Was out of view: | |
| And being here alone, | 35 |
| I saw that happiness was gone | |
| From me! For this, | |
| I thirsted absent bliss, | |
| And thought that sure beyond the seas, | |
| Or else in something near at hand | 40 |
| I knew not yet, (since nought did please | |
| I knew) my Bliss did stand. | |
| |
| But little did the infant dream | |
| That all the treasures of the world were by: | |
| And that himself was so the cream | 45 |
| And crown of all which round about did lie. | |
| Yet thus it was: The gem, | |
| The diadem, | |
| The ring enclosing all | |
| That stood upon this earthly ball; | 50 |
| The Heavenly Eye, | |
| Much wider than the sky, | |
| Wherein they all included were, | |
| The glorious Soul that was the King | |
| Made to possess them, did appear | 55 |
| A small and little thing! | |
| |
