Wesley Corpus

The Aspiration. From the Same [John Norris] Source: Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), Part I Author: Charles Wesley (attributed) --- How do thy glorious streams of light, Ev’n thro’ this veil, refresh my sight! When shall my prison’d73 soul be free, And find light, life, love, heav’n in thee! The Aspiration.74 From the Same [Alter’d from Mr. Norris]. How long, great God, how long must I Immur’d in this dark prison lie! Where thro’75 the avenues of sense My soul has dim intelligence: Where but faint gleams salute my sight, Like moon-shine in a cloudy night. When shall I leave this dusky sphere, And be all mind, all eye, all ear! How cold this clime! And yet my sense Perceives ev’n here thy influence. Ev’n here the magnet’s pow’r I feel, And tremble like th’ attracted steel. And tho’ to beauties less divine, Sometimes my erring heart decline, Yet soon (so strong the sympathy) It turns, and points again to thee. I long to see this excellence, Which at such distance strikes my sense. My soul struggles to disengage Her wings from this her earthly cage: 73“M’ imprison’d” in CPH (1738). 74Source: John Norris, A Collection of Miscellanies (Oxford: J. Crosely, 1687), 117. First appeared in CPH (1738), 27. It was omitted from the 4th edn. (1743) and following of HSP (1739/40). 75“From” in CPH (1738).