Love

O Nectar! O delicious stream!  
 O ravishing and only pleasure! Where  
 Shall such another theme  
Inspire my tongue with joys or please mine ear!  
 Abridgement of delights!
 And Queen of sights!  
O mine of rarities! O Kingdom wide!  
O more! O cause of all! O glorious Bride!  
 O God! O Bride of God! O King!  
 O soul and crown of everything!
 
 Did not I covet to behold  
Some endless monarch, that did always live  
 In palaces of gold,  
Willing all kingdoms, realms, and crowns to give  
 Unto my soul! Whose love
 A spring might prove  
Of endless glories, honours, friendships, pleasures,  
Joys, praises, beauties and celestial treasures!  
 Lo, now I see there’s such a King,  
 The fountain-head of everything!
 
 Did my ambition ever dream  
Of such a Lord, of such a love! Did I  
 Expect so sweet a stream  
As this at any time! Could any eye  
 Believe it! Why all power
 Is used here;  
Joys down from Heaven on my head do shower,  
And Jove beyond the fiction doth appear  
 Once more in golden rain to come  
 To Danae’s pleasing fruitful womb.
 
 His Ganymede! His life! His joy!  
Or He comes down to me, or takes me up  
 That I might be His boy,  
And fill, and taste, and give, and drink the cup,  
 But those (tho’ great) are all
 Too short and small,  
Too weak and feeble pictures to express  
The true mysterious depths of Blessedness.  
 I am His image, and His friend,  
 His son, bride, glory, temple, end.