John & Charles Wesley · 8 of 258

Virtue

Altered from Herbert.

Sweet Day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky: The dew shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou with all thy sweets must die!

Sweet Rose, so fragrant and so brave, Dazzling the rash beholder’s eye: Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou with all thy sweets must die!

Sweet Spring, so beauteous and so gay, Storehouse, where sweets unnumber’d lie: Not long thy fading glories stay, But thou with all thy sweets must die!

Only a sweet and virtuous mind, When Nature all in ruins lies, When earth and heaven a period find, Begins a life that never dies.