I Walk'd the Other Day Analysis

1I walk'd the other day, to spend my hour,
2Into a field,
3Where I sometimes had seen the soil to yield
4A gallant flow'r;
5But winter now had ruffled all the bow'r
6And curious store
7I knew there heretofore.

8Yet I, whose search lov'd not to peep and peer
9I' th' face of things,
10Thought with my self, there might be other springs
11Besides this here,
12Which, like cold friends, sees us but once a year;
13And so the flow'r
14Might have some other bow'r.

15Then taking up what I could nearest spy,
16I digg'd about
17That place where I had seen him to grow out;
18And by and by
19I saw the warm recluse alone to lie,
20Where fresh and green
21He liv'd of us unseen.

22Many a question intricate and rare
23Did I there strow;
24But all I could extort was, that he now
25Did there repair
26Such losses as befell him in this air,
27And would ere long
28Come forth most fair and young.

29This past, I threw the clothes quite o'er his head;
30And stung with fear
31Of my own frailty dropp'd down many a tear
32Upon his bed;
33Then sighing whisper'd, "happy are the dead!
34What peace doth now
35Rock him asleep below!"

36And yet, how few believe such doctrine springs
37From a poor root,
38Which all the winter sleeps here under foot,
39And hath no wings
40To raise it to the truth and light of things;
41But is still trod
42By ev'ry wand'ring clod.

43O Thou! whose spirit did at first inflame
44And warm the dead,
45And by a sacred incubation fed
46With life this frame,
47Which once had neither being, form, nor name;
48Grant I may so
49Thy steps track here below,

50That in these masques and shadows I may see
51Thy sacred way;
52And by those hid ascents climb to that day,
53Which breaks from Thee,
54Who art in all things, though invisibly!
55Shew me thy peace,
56Thy mercy, love, and ease,

57And from this care, where dreams and sorrows reign,
58Lead me above,
59Where light, joy, leisure, and true comforts move
60Without all pain;
61There, hid in thee, shew me his life again,
62At whose dumb urn
63Thus all the year I mourn.

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