Love (III)

Listen to:

Love (III) (1:15)

by George Herbert 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back

                              Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

                             From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                             If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

                             Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

                             I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

                             Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

                             Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

                             My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

                             So I did sit and eat.

Love (II)

Listen to:

Love (II) (1:10)

by George Herbert 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Immortal Heat, O let Thy greater flame

      Attract the lesser to it; let those fires

      Which shall consume the world first make it tame,

And kindle in our hearts such true desires

As may consume our lusts, and make Thee way:

      Then shall our hearts pant Thee, then shall our brain

      All her invention on Thine altar lay,

And there in hymns send back Thy fire again.

Our eyes shall see Thee, which before saw dust,

      Dust blown by wit, till that they both were blind:

      Thou shalt recover all Thy goods in kind,

Who wert disseized by usurping lust:

All knees shall bow to Thee; all wits shall rise,

And praise Him Who did make and mend our eyes.

To the Evening Star

Listen to:

To the Evening Star (1:08)

by William Blake

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Thou fair-hair'd angel of the evening,

Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light

Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown

Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!

Smile on our loves, and while thou drawest the

Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew

On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes

In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on

The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,

And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,

Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,

And the lion glares thro' the dun forest:

The fleeces of our flocks are cover'd with

Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence.

The 90th Psalm, Versified

Listen to:

The 90th Psalm, Versified (1:24)

by Robert Burns

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

The First Six Verses Of The Ninetieth Psalm Versified

by Robert Burns

O Thou, the first, the greatest friend 

Of all the human race! 

Whose strong right hand has ever been 

Their stay and dwelling place! 

Before the mountains heav'd their heads 

Beneath Thy forming hand, 

Before this ponderous globe itself 

Arose at Thy command; 

That Pow'r which rais'd and still upholds 

This universal frame, 

From countless, unbeginning time 

Was ever still the same. 

Those mighty periods of years 

Which seem to us so vast, 

Appear no more before Thy sight 

Than yesterday that's past. 

Thou giv'st the word: Thy creature, man, 

Is to existence brought; 

Again Thou say'st, "Ye sons of men, 

Return ye into nought!" 

Thou layest them, with all their cares, 

In everlasting sleep; 

As with a flood Thou tak'st them off 

With overwhelming sweep. 

They flourish like the morning flow'r, 

In beauty's pride array'd; 

But long ere night cut down it lies 

All wither'd and decay'd.

The Windhover

Listen to:

The Windhover (1:08)

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

The Windhover:

To Christ our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king-

     dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Fal-

          con, in his riding

Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and

     striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstacy! then off, off forth on swing,

     As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend:

          the hurl and gliding

     Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the

          thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here

    Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a

          billion

Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

     No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down

          sillion

Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,

   Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

To Daffodils

Listen to:

To Daffodils (:42)

by Robert Herrick

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see

         You haste away so soon;

As yet the early-rising sun

         Has not attain'd his noon.

                        Stay, stay,

                Until the hasting day

                        Has run

                But to the even-song;

And, having pray'd together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,

         We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,

         As you, or anything.

                        We die

                As your hours do, and dry

                        Away,

                Like to the summer's rain;

Or as the pearls of morning's dew,

Ne'er to be found again.