Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow A PARAPHRASE (ON THOMAS À KEMPIS, L. III. C. 2) - The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope

Return to Title Page for The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Literature

A PARAPHRASE (ON THOMAS À KEMPIS, L. III. C. 2) - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


A PARAPHRASE (ON THOMAS À KEMPIS, L. III. C. 2)

Supposed to have been written in 1700; first published from the Caryll Papers in the Athenæum, July 15, 1854.

    • Speak, Gracious Lord, oh, speak; thy servant hears:
    • For I’m thy servant and I’ll still be so:
    • Speak words of comfort in my willing ears;
    • And since my tongue is in thy praises slow,
    • And since that thine all Rhetoric exceeds:
    • Speak thou in words, but let me speak in deeds!
    • Nor speak alone, but give me grace to hear
    • What thy celestial Sweetness does impart;
    • Let it not stop when enter’d at the ear,
    • But sink, and take deep rooting in my heart.
    • As the parch’d Earth drinks rain (but grace afford)
    • With such a gust will I receive thy word.
    • Nor with the Israelites shall I desire
    • Thy heav’nly word by Moses to receive,
    • Lest I should die: but Thou who didst inspire
    • Moses himself, speak Thou, that I may live.
    • Rather with Samuel I beseech with tears,
    • Speak, gracious Lord, oh, speak, thy servant hears.
    • Moses, indeed, may say the words, but Thou
    • Must give the Spirit, and the Life inspire;
    • Our Love to thee his fervent breath may blow,
    • But ’t is thyself alone can give the fire:
    • Thou without them may’st speak and profit too;
    • But without thee what could the Prophets do?
    • They preach the Doctrine, but thou mak’st us do’t;
    • They teach the myst’ries thou dost open lay;
    • The trees they water, but thou giv’st the fruit;
    • They to Salvation show the arduous way,
    • But none but you can give us strength to walk;
    • You give the Practice, they but give the Talk.
    • Let them be silent then; and thou alone,
    • My God! speak comfort to my ravish’d ears;
    • Light of my eyes, my Consolation,
    • Speak when thou wilt, for still thy servant hears.
    • Whate’er thou speak’st, let this be understood:
    • Thy greater Glory, and my greater Good!