A Poem By Thomas Traherne

by Thomas Traherne, submitted by Shaun

The Improvment

Tis more to recollect, then make. The one
Is but an Accident without the other.
We cannot think the World to be the Throne
Of God, unless his Wisdom shine as Brother
Unto his power, in the Fabrick, so
That we the one may in the other know.

His Goodness also must in both appear,
And all the Children of his Love be found,
In the Creation of the Starry Sphere,
And in the Forming of the fruitfull Ground;
Before we can that Happiness descrie,
Which is the Daughter of the DEITIE.

His Wisdom Shines in Spreading forth the Skie,
His Power's Great in Ordering the Sun,
His Goodness very Marvellous and High
Appears, in evry Work his Hand hath done.
And all his Works in their varietie,
Even scattered abroad delight the Eye.

But neither Goodness, Wisdom, Power, nor Love,
Nor Happiness it self in things could be,
Did not they all in one fair order move,
And joyntly by their Service End in me.
Had he not made an Ey to be the Sphere
Of all Things, none of these would e're appear.

His Wisdom, Goodness, Power, as they unite
All things in one, that they may be the Treasures
Of one Enjoy'r, shine in the utmost Height
They can attain; and are most Glorious Pleasures,
When all the Universe conjoynd in one,
Exalts a Creature, as if that alone.

To bring the Moisture of far distant Seas
Into a point, to make them present here,
In virtu, not in Bulk; one man to please
With all the Powers of the Highest Sphere,
From East, from West, from North and South, to bring
The pleasing Influence of evry thing;

Is far more Great than to Create them there
Where now they stand; His Wisdom more doth shine
In that, his Might and Goodness more appear,
In recollecting; He is more Divine
In making evry Thing a Gift to one
Than in the Parts of all his Spacious Throne.

Herein we see a Marvellous Designe,
And apprehending Clearly the Great Skill
Of that Great Architect, whose Love doth shine
In all his Works, we find his Life and Will.
For lively Counsels do the Godhead shew,
And these his Love and Goodness make us know.

By Wise Contrivance he doth all things guide,
And so dispose them, that while they unite,
For Man, he Endless Pleasures doth Provide,
And shows that Happiness is his Delight,
His Creatures Happiness as well as His:
For that in Truth he seeks, and that's his Bliss.

O Rapture! Wonder! Extasie! Delight!
How Great must then his Glory be, how Great
Our Blessedness! How vast and infinite
Or pleasure, how Transcendent, how compleat,
If we the Goodness of our God possess,
And all His Joy be in our Blessedness!

Thomas Traherne

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Silence

by Thomas Traherne submitted by Shaun
(Swindon, England)

An unperceived donor gave all pleasures;
There nothing was but I, and all my treasures.
In that fair world, One only was the friend,
One golden stream, one spring, one only end.
There only one did sacrifice and sing
To only one eternal heavenly King.
The union was so strait between these two,
That all was either's which my soul could view;
His gifts and my possessions, both our treasures;
He mine, and I the ocean of his pleasures.
He was an ocean of delights from whom
The living springs and golden streams did come:
My bosom was an ocean into which
They all did run. And me they did enrich
A vast and infinite capacity
Did make my bosom like the Deity,
In whose mysterious and celestial mind
All ages and all worlds together shine.
Who tho' He nothing said did always reign
And in himself eternity contain.
The world was more in me than I in it.
The King of Glory in my soul did sit.
And to Himself in me He always gave
All that He takes delight to me me have.
For so my spirit was an endless sphere,
Like God Himself, and heaven and earth was there.

Thomas Traherne

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