Thomas Traherne, “The Preparative”

1
My Body being Dead, my Lims unknown;
Before I skild to prize
Those living Stars mine Eys,
Before my Tongue or Cheeks were to me shewn,
     Before I knew my Hands were mine,
Or that my Sinews did my Members joyn,
     When neither Nostril, Foot, nor Ear
As yet was seen, or felt, or did appear;
          I was within
A House I knew not, newly clothd with Skin.

2
Then was my Soul my only All to me,
A Living Endless Ey,
Just bounded with the Skie
Whose Power, whose Act, whose Essence was to see.
     I was an Inward Sphere of Light,
Or an Interminable Orb of Sight,
     An Endless and a Living Day,
A vital Sun that round about did ray
          All Life, all Sence,
A Naked Simple Pure Intelligence.

3
I then no Thirst nor Hunger did conceiv,
No dull Necessity,
No Want was Known to me;
Without Disturbance then I did receiv
     The fair Ideas of all Things,
And had the Hony even without the Stings.
     A Meditating Inward Ey
Gazing at Quiet did within me lie,
          And evry Thing
Delighted me that was their Heavnly King.

4
For Sight inherits Beauty, Hearing Sounds,
The Nostril Sweet Perfumes,
All Tastes have hidden Rooms
Within the Tongue; and Feeling Feeling Wounds
     With Pleasure and Delight, but I
Forgot the rest, and was all Sight: or Ey.
     Unbodied and Devoid of Care,
Just as in Heavn the Holy Angels are.
          For Simple Sence
Is Lord of all Created Excellence.

5
Being thus prepard for all Felicity,
Not prepossest with Dross,
Nor stifly glued to gross
And dull Materials that might ruine me,
     Not fetterd by an Iron Fate
With vain Affections in my Earthy State
     To any thing that might Seduce
My Sence, or els bereave it of its use
          I was as free
As if there were nor Sin, nor Miserie.                                            

Thomas Traherne, 1636-1674 – “The Preparative” from Poetry & Prose