Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

William Cowper (1731–1800)

The Acquiescence of Pure Love

[From the French of Madame Guyon]

LOVE! if Thy destined sacrifice am I,

Come, slay thy victim, and prepare Thy fires;

Plunged in the depths of mercy, let me die

The death which every soul that lives desires!

I watch my hours, and see them fleet away;

The time is long that I have languished here;

Yet all my thoughts Thy purposes obey,

With no reluctance, cheerful and sincere.

To me ’tis equal, whether Love ordain

My life or death, appoint me pain or ease:

My soul perceives no real ill in pain;

In ease or health no real good she sees.

One Good she covets, and that Good alone;

To choose Thy will, from selfish bias free;

And to prefer a cottage to a throne,

And grief to comfort, if it pleases Thee.

That we should bear the cross is Thy command,

Die to the world, and live to self no more;

Suffer, unmoved, beneath the rudest hand,

As pleased when shipwrecked as when safe on shore.