by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620)
View mee, Lord, a worke of thine
Language: English
View mee, Lord, a worke of thine : Shall I then lye drown'd in night? Might thy grace in mee but shine, I should seeme made all of light. But my soule still surfets so On the poysoned baytes of sinne, That I strange and vgly growe, All is darke and foule within. Clense mee, Lord, that I may kneele At thine Altar, pure and white : They that once thy Mercies feele, Gaze no more on earths delight. Worldly ioyes like shadowes fade, When the heau'nly light appeares ; But the cou'nants thou hast made, Endlesse, know nor dayes, nor yeares. In thy word, Lord, is my trust, To thy mercies fast I flye ; Though I am but clay and dust, Yet thy grace can lift me high.
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), "View mee, Lord, a worke of thine", published c1613, from Two Bookes of Ayres - The First Booke, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Tagruf", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-11-16
Line count: 20
Word count: 126