¶ Confession.
O What a cunning guest Is this same grief! within my heart I made Closets; and in them many a chest; And, like a master in my trade, In those chests, boxes; in each box, a till: Yet grief knows all, and enters when he will. No scrue, no piercer can Into a piece of timber work and winde, As Gods afflictions into man, When he a torture hath designd. They are too subtill for the subtllest hearts; And fall, like rheumes,1 upon the tendrest parts. We are the earth; and they, Like moles within us, heave, and cast about: And till they foot and clutch their prey, They never cool, much lesse give out. No smith can make such locks but they have keyes: Closets are halls to them; and hearts, high-wayes. Onely an open breast Doth shut them out, so that they cannot enter; Or, if they enter, cannot rest, But quickly seek some new adventure. Smooth open hearts no fastning have; but fiction Doth give a hold and handle to affliction. Wherefore my faults and sinnes, Lord, I acknowledge; take thy plagues away: For since confession pardon winnes, I challenge here the brightest day, The clearest diamond: let them do their best, They shall be thick and cloudie to my breast. |
1 rheumes. watery matter from eyes, nose, ears, etc.; said to cause disease. (Oxford English Dictionary) One of the Outlandish Proverbs #475 reads: "Wealth is like rheume, it falles on the weakest parts." [Return]
|