Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Thomas Traherne. 1637?1674406. News
NEWS from a foreign country came | |
As if my treasure and my wealth lay there; | |
So much it did my heart inflame, | |
‘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 hover’d 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 ‘twould 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 naught 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! |