1View
but this tulip, rose, or july flower
2And by a finite, see an infinite power.
3These flowers into their chaos
were retired
, 4’Til human art them raised and reinspired
5With beating, macerating
, fermentation
, 6Calcining chemically
, with segregation
. 7Then
, lest the air these secrets should reveal, 8Shut up the ashes under Hermes’s seal
. 9Then with a candle or a gentle fire
10You may reanimate at your desire
11These gallant
plants. But, if you cool the glass, 12To their first principles they’ll quickly pass.
13From sulfur, salt, and mercury
they came; 14When they dissolve, they turn into the same.
15Then seeing a wretched mortal hath the power
16To recreate a Virbius
of a flower, 17Why should we fear, though sadly we retire
18Into our cause? Our God will reinspire
19Our dormant dust and keep alive the same
20With an all-quickening, everlasting flame.
21Then though I into atoms scattered be,
22In indivisibles
I’ll trust in thee. 23Then let this comfort me in my sad story:
24Dust is but four degrees
removed from glory 25By nature’s paths. But God from death and night
26Can raise this flesh to endless life and light.
27Then, my impatient soul, contented be,
28For thou a glorious spring ere long shalt see.
29After these gloomy shades of death and sorrow,
30Thou shalt enjoy an everlasting morrow.
31As wheat in new plowed furrows rotting lies,
32Incapable of quickening ’til it dies
, 33So into dust this flesh of mine must turn,
34And lie a while forgotten in my urn.
35Yet when the sea, and earth, and hell, shall give
36Their treasures up, my body too shall live—
37Not like the resurrection at Grand Caire
, 38Where men revive then straight of life despair—
39But with my soul my flesh shall reunite,
40And ne’er involved be with death and night
, 41But live in endless pleasure, love, and light.
42Then hallelujahs will I sing to thee,
43My gracious God to all eternity.
44Then at thy dissolution patient be.
45If man can raise a flower, God can thee.