1 Whatever 'tis, whose beauty here below <br />2 Attracts thee thus and makes thee stream and flow, <br />3 And wind and curl, and wink and smile, <br />4 Shifting thy gate and guile; <br /> <br />5 Though thy close commerce nought at all imbars <br />6 My present search, for eagles eye not stars, <br />7 And still the lesser by the best <br />8 And highest good is blest; <br /> <br />9 Yet, seeing all things that subsist and be, <br />10 Have their commissions from divinity, <br />11 And teach us duty, I will see <br />12 What man may learn from thee. <br /> <br />13 First, I am sure, the subject so respected <br />14 Is well dispos'd, for bodies once infected, <br />15 Deprav'd, or dead, can have with thee <br />16 No hold, nor sympathy. <br /> <br />17 Next, there's in it a restless, pure desire <br />18 And longing for thy bright and vital fire, <br />19 Desire that never will be quench'd, <br />20 Nor can be writh'd, nor wrench'd. <br /> <br />21 These are the magnets which so strongly move <br />22 And work all night upon thy light and love, <br />23 As beauteous shapes, we know not why, <br />24 Command and guide the eye. <br /> <br />25 For where desire, celestial, pure desire <br />26 Hath taken root, and grows, and doth not tire, <br />27 There God a commerce states, and sheds <br />28 His secret on their heads. <br /> <br />29 This is the heart he craves, and who so will <br />30 But give it him, and grudge not, he shall feel <br />31 That God is true, as herbs unseen <br />32 Put on their youth and green.<br /><br />Henry Vaughan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-star-2/
