Richard Crashaw

thumb|right|Title page of Crashaw's Steps to the Temple (1646) which was published during Crashaw's exile Richard Crashaw (c. 1613 – 21 August 1649) English poet, styled "the divine," was part of the Seventeenth-century Metaphysical School of poets. Quotes Love's great artillery. Prayer L18 ’Tis love, not years or limbs that canMake the martyr, or the man. A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa Souls are not Spaniards too; one friendly floodOf baptism blends them all into a blood.Christ's faith makes but one body of all souls,And love's that body's soul; no law controlsOur free traffic for heav'n; we may maintainPeace, sure, with piety, though it come from Spain.What soul soe'er, in any language, canSpeak heav'n like hers is my soul's countryman.Oh, 'tis not Spanish, but 'tis heav'n she speaks!'Tis heaven that lies in ambush there, and breaksFrom thence into the wond'ring reader's breast,Who feels his warm heart hatched into a nestOf little eagles and young loves, whose highFlights scorn the lazy dust and things that die. Apology for the Foregoing Hymn (the Hymn to the Name and Honor of the Admirable Saint Teresa) If I were lost in miseryWhat was it to Thy heaven and thee?What was it to Thy precious bloodIf my foul heart called for a flood?What if my faithless soul and IWould needs fall inWith guilt and sin,What did the lamb that He should die?What did the lamb that He should need,When the wolf sins, Himself to bleed? Caritas Nimia; or, The Dear Bargain Let hearts and lippes speak lowd; and sayHail, door of life: and sourse of day!The door was shutt, the fountain seal'd;Yet Light was seen and Life reveald.The door was shutt, yet let in day,The fountain seald, yet life found way. The Hymn, O Gloriosa Domina (translation of the hymn of Venantius Fortunatus) The conscious water saw its God and blushed. Epigrammatum sacrorum liber (1634). Translated by John Dryden from Crashaw's Latin original: "Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit (The modest Nymph saw the god, and blushed)", Complete works of Richard Crashaw (1872), edited by Alexander B. Grosart, vol. 2, p. 96. Now though the blow that snatcht him hence,Stopt the Mouth of Eloquence,Though she be dumb e'r since his Death,Not us'd to speak but in his Breath;Yet if at least she not denies,The sad Language of our Eyes,We are contented: for then thisLanguage none more fluent is.Nothing speaks our Grief so wellAs to speak nothing: Come then tellThy mind in Tears who e'r thou be,That ow'st a Name to Misery:Eyes are Vocal, Tears have Tongues,And there be words not made with Lungs;Sententious showers, O let them fall,Their cadence is Rhetorical.Here's a Theme will drink th' expenceOf all thy watry Eloquence;Weep then, onely be exprestThus much, He's Dead, and Weep the rest. Upon the Death of a Gentleman A happy soul, that all the wayTo heaven hath a summer’s day. In Praise of Lessius’s Rule of Health, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). The modest front of this small floor,Believe me, reader, can say moreThan many a braver marble can,—“Here lies a truly honest man!” Epitaph upon Mr. Ashton, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Thou water turn'st to wine, fair friend of life;Thy foe, to cross the sweet arts of Thy reign,Distils from thence the tears of wrath and strife,And so turns wine to water back again. Steps to the Temple, To Our Lord upon the Water Made Wine; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 516. Wishes for the Supposed Mistress Quotes reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Whoe’er she be,That not impossible she,That shall command my heart and me. Where’er she lie,Locked up from mortal eye,In shady leaves of destiny. Days that need borrowNo part of their good morrowFrom a fore-spent night of sorrow. Life that dares sendA challenge to his end,And when it comes, say, Welcome, friend! Sydneian showersOf sweet discourse, whose powersCan crown old Winter’s head with flowers. External links Category:Poets from England Category:Educators from England Category:Clergy Category:Catholics from England Category:1610s births Category:1649 deaths Category:People from London