When that this Bird of Paradise put in The Wicker Cage (my Corps) to tweedle3 praise Had peckt the Fruite forbad: and so did fling Away its Food; and lost its golden dayes; It fell into Celestiall Famine sore: Alas! alas! Poore Bird, what wilt thou doe? The Creatures field no food for Souls e're gave.. In this sad state, Gods Tender Bowells1 run Out streams of Grace: and he to end all strife Which Bread of Life from Heaven down came and stands Did God mould up this Bread in Heaven, and bake, What Grace is this knead in this Loafe? This thing Yee Angells, help: This fill would to the brim Heav'ns whelm'd-down Chrystall meele Bowle, yea and higher. This Bread of Life dropt in thy mouth, doth Cry. Eate, Eate me, Soul, and thou shalt never dy. ΤΟ 20 25 39 30 35 1682 1939 The Glory of and Grace in Come now behold Within this Knot What Flowers do grow: Whence Wreaths of all Perfumes do flow. 3. I.e., twiddle, here signifying "warble," in reference to the bird of paradise, his soul. 4. Here referring to a supposed inward center of compassion. 5. Clump. 5 Most Curious Colours of all sorts you shall Oh! Look, and finde These Choicest Flowers most richly sweet With Artificiall Angells meet.8 An heap of Pearls is precious: but they shall Christ's Spirit showers Down in his Word, and Sacraments Upon these Flowers The Clouds of Grace Divine Contents. Such things of Wealthy Blessings on them fall Yet Still behold! All flourish not at once. We see While some Unfold Their blushing Leaves, some buds there bee. But as they stand Like Beauties reeching in perfume A Divine Hand Doth hand them up to Glories room: Where Each in sweet'ned Songs all Praises shall 1682 5 9. Cf. "reeking"; an obsolete meaning was "to emit sweet odors." 1. Peevish, ill-humored. Cf. "pet," 1. 17. Whom yet thy whorle2 pins did not clasp His sting. But as affraid, remote Didst stand hereat And with thy little fingers stroke And gently tap His back. Thus gently him didst treate Lest he should pet, And in a froppish,3 waspish heate Whereas the silly Fly, Caught by its leg Thou by the throate tookst hastily, And 'hinde the head Bite Dead. This goes to pot, that not Nature doth call.4 Strive not above what strength hath got Lest in the brawle Thou fall. This Frey seems thus to us. Hells Spider gets His intrails spun to whip Cords thus And wove to nets And sets. To tangle Adams race In's stratigems To their Destructions, spoil'd, made base By venom things Damn'd Sins. But mighty, Gracious Lord Communicate Thy Grace to breake the Cord, afford 2. The whorl, or small flywheel of the spindle, whose "pins" secure the spinning thread, as the whirling legs of the spider enmesh his victim. 3. Fretful. 4. that not / Nature doth call: I.e., he "goes to pot" who does not call upon "Natural Reason," which, in the Puri ΤΟ 15 20 25 30 35 40 tan Covenant theology, was man's inherent endowment of capacity to know God's Truth. 5. I.e., fray, or affray, here meaning "attack." 6. Tough cord, now of hemp, formerly of animal entrails, like catgut. Lord, art thou at the Table Head above Shall I not smell thy sweet, oh! Sharons Rose? Had not my Soule's thy Conduit, Pipes stopt bin Let Graces Golden Spade dig till the Spring Lord, let thy Spirit raise my sighings till These Pipes my soule do with thy sweetness fill. Earth once was Paradise of Heaven below Till inkefac'd sin had it with poyson stockt Heav'ns upmost Loft, and it in Glory Lockt. Once at thy Feast, I saw thee Pearle-like stand "Tween Heaven, and Earth where Heavens Bright glory all 7. In the Song of Solomon, the bride's announcement of her readiness. Mystical religious writers frequently substituted Christ and the worshiper in "sanctifica 5 ΤΟ 15 20 25 tion" instead of marriage. Cf. the note to the epigraph of "The Experience." 8. Wooden platter. In streams fell on thee, as a floodgate and, Like Sun Beams through thee on the World to Fall. Shall Heaven, and Earth's bright Glory all up lie Like Sun Beams bundled in the sun, in thee? 1683 [TWO MEDITATIONS ON "THE SONG Meditation 142, Second Series 30 35 40 1937 Canticles VI: 9. My Dove is One the onely One of her mother the Choice What shall I say, my Deare Deare Lord? most Deare Articulated Breath, soon disappeare. If wrote are but the Drivle of my pen Beblackt with my inke, soon torn worn out unless What, what a Say is this. Thy Spouse doth rise. 9. "Spread out, extend over" [John- 1. Among the biblical texts which inspired Taylor's "Preparatory Meditations" the Canticles, with their luxuriant tonality and imagery, moved him most deeply. Solomon's eight Canticles, independently striking, are at the same time an integrated totality of the erotic experience as sublime and indispensable to the human condition. Early Christian theology retained this work in the canon 5 by a mystical sublimation of the erotic to the level at which the love of God, of Christ and His Church, and mankind coexist. Solomon's sixth Canticle reconstructs his young love for the Shulamite girl, early lost but passionately remembered. For this Canticle alone Taylor wrote twenty poems in the Second Series, of which we represent the dominant theme in "Meditation 142" and "Meditation 146." The story of the Shulamite appears in |