1 Happy those early days, when I <br />2 Shin'd in my angel-infancy! <br />3 Before I understood this place <br />4 Appointed for my second race, <br />5 Or taught my soul to fancy ought <br />6 But a white, celestial thought; <br />7 When yet I had not walk'd above <br />8 A mile or two from my first love, <br />9 And looking back (at that short space) <br />10 Could see a glimpse of his bright face; <br />11 When on some gilded cloud or flow'r <br />12 My gazing soul would dwell an hour, <br />13 And in those weaker glories spy <br />14 Some shadows of eternity; <br />15 Before I taught my tongue to wound <br />16 My conscience with a sinful sound, <br />17 Or had the black art to dispense, <br />18 A sev'ral sin to ev'ry sense, <br />19 But felt through all this fleshly dress <br />20 Bright shoots of everlastingness. <br /> <br />21 O how I long to travel back, <br />22 And tread again that ancient track! <br />23 That I might once more reach that plain, <br />24 Where first I left my glorious train, <br />25 From whence th' enlighten'd spirit sees <br />26 That shady city of palm trees. <br />27 But ah! my soul with too much stay <br />28 Is drunk, and staggers in the way. <br />29 Some men a forward motion love, <br />30 But I by backward steps would move; <br />31 And when this dust falls to the urn, <br />32 In that state I came, return.<br /><br />Henry Vaughan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-retreat-2/
