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To His Saviour's Sepulchre: His Devotion.

By Robert Herrick

Topics: classic

Hail, holy and all-honour'd tomb,     By no ill haunted; here I come,     With shoes put off, to tread thy room.     I'll not profane by soil of sin     Thy door as I do enter in;     For I have washed both hand and heart,     This, that, and every other part,     So that I dare, with far less fear     Than full affection, enter here.     Thus, thus I come to kiss Thy stone     With a warm lip and solemn one:     And as I kiss I'll here and there     Dress Thee with flow'ry diaper.     How sweet this place is! as from hence     Flowed all Panchaia's frankincense;     Or rich Arabia did commix,     Here, all her rare aromatics.     Let me live ever here, and stir     No one step from this sepulchre.     Ravish'd I am! and down I lie     Confused in this brave ecstasy.     Here let me rest; and let me have     This for my heaven that was Thy grave:     And, coveting no higher sphere,     I'll my eternity spend here.

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Author:Robert Herrick

"Hail, holy and all-honour'd tomb,..." by Robert Herrick

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Robert Herrick

About Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English Cavalier poet whose "Hesperides" (1648) contains over 1,200 poems. His carpe diem verse "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" ("Gather ye rosebuds while ye may") and lyric poems celebrate love, beauty, and the passing of time.

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