1My soul: in struggling thou dost ill!

2The chicken in the shell lies still;

3So doth the embryo in the womb;

4So doth the corpse within the tomb;

5

So doth the flower sleep in its cause1

—

6Obedient, all, to nature’s laws.

7But

thou’rt2

still striving to be free,

8As if none were in bonds but thee.

9Though for a time thou’rt clothed with earth,

10

Ere3

long

thou’lt4

have a happy birth.

11The chirping bird will break its shell;

12The infant leave its loathed cell;

13The sleeping dust will rise and speak,

14And will her

marble prison break;5

;

15The flower her beauty will display;

16Then, my

enfranchised6

soul, away

17Beyond the sky will take her flight,

18And rest above the

spheres of night,7

,

19In everlasting life and light.

20Scorning this

dunghill8

globe of earth,

21She’ll go

from whence9

she had her birth.

22But (O my soul) once more, return,

23And call me in my silent urn.

24But if asleep I then am found,

25

Jog10

me, and say

the trump doth sound.11

.

26Then will I rise and fly away

27With thee to everlasting day;

28Then shall our grief and past annoys,

29Be swallowed up

of12

infinite joys;

30Then, being perfect and

sublimed,13

,

31We shall discern this globe

calcined:14

:

32Then shall we know these

orbs of wonder,15

,

33Which

in a maze16

we now live under.

34And why sad

Saturn’s heavy eye17

35Frowns on me with malignancy;

36And why

conjunctions18

should foreshew,

37Some mighty

monarchy’s19

overthrow;

38And by what (swift and infinite) power

39

Sol20

runs three hundred miles an hour.

40And why pale

Cynthia21

doth so change

41Her lovely face as she doth range

42All night,

a-hunting22

in the shade;

43And how fair

Venus23

can be made

44Hesperus, in the orient,

45And Vesperus, in the occident;

46Or

whether ethereal fire doth burn,24

,

47Or that this

terrene25

globe doth turn,

48The sun being center unto all,

49And that

he26

ne’er doth rise or fall;

50Or whether they have

a treble motion,27

,

51Of which we have so small a notion.

52All this (and more) we then shall know,

53Which are such wonders here below.

54But which will most increase our joys

55(Compared with which, these will prove

toys)28

):

56Our unknown friends we then shall know,

57Even those (aye me) we lost below.

58Nay, we shall know (without which all is none)

59The eternal essence, even as we are known.