here, have some Christopher Smart
For I bless God in the honey of the sugar-cane and the milk of the cocoa.
For I bless God in the libraries of the learned and for all the booksellers in the world.
For I bless God in the strength of my loins and for the voice which he hath made sonorous.
For 'tis no more a merit to provide for oneself, but to quit all for the sake of the Lord.
For there is no invention but the gift of God, and no grace like the grace of gratitude.
For grey hairs are honourable and tell every one of them to the glory of God.
For I bless the Lord Jesus for the memory of GAY, POPE and SWIFT.
For all good words are from GOD, and all others are cant.
For I am enabled by my ascent and the Lord haith raised me above my Peers.
For I pray God bless my lord CLARENDON and his seed for ever.
For there is silver in my mines and I bless God that it is rather there then in my coffers.
For I blessed God in St James's Park till I routed all the company.
For the officers of the peace are at variance with me, and the watchman smites me with his staff.
This is from the poem Jubilate Agno, which Smart wrote while an inmate at St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics -- it's best known for the section beginning "For I will consider my cat Jeoffry." I was looking through it for a fic, although I can't actually use it because it hadn't been published at the time the fic takes place. But I did want to share it. I love that in other bits he includes praise for chocolate and bookstores.
The final line of the section quoted above also provides the climax of one of the key sections of Benjamin Britten's 1943 cantata "Rejoice in the Lamb." This is the text of that movement, a composite of various lines of Smart's poem:
For I am under the same accusation with my Savior,
For they said, he is besides himself.
For the officers of the peace are at variance with me, and the watchman smites me with his staff.
For the silly fellow, silly fellow, is against me, and belongeth neither to me nor to my family.
For I am in twelve hardships, but he that was born of a virgin shall deliver me out of all.
Britten's setting of Smart's text also pays tribute to another artist made tongue-tied by authority; the organ motif that underlies the movement, and which is taken up by the choir at "Silly fellow, silly fellow," is the musical signature of Dmitri Shostakovich.
You can hear it here: the THING that happens at "smites me with his staff" is not as thunderously, cataclysmically effective in this recording as in the one I own, sadly enough (perhaps I should upload it), and it still makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I can only imagine what it sounds like live: the first time I ever heard it I was driving in my car and nearly had a wreck. But if you're driving, what are you doing reading this post?
For I bless God in the libraries of the learned and for all the booksellers in the world.
For I bless God in the strength of my loins and for the voice which he hath made sonorous.
For 'tis no more a merit to provide for oneself, but to quit all for the sake of the Lord.
For there is no invention but the gift of God, and no grace like the grace of gratitude.
For grey hairs are honourable and tell every one of them to the glory of God.
For I bless the Lord Jesus for the memory of GAY, POPE and SWIFT.
For all good words are from GOD, and all others are cant.
For I am enabled by my ascent and the Lord haith raised me above my Peers.
For I pray God bless my lord CLARENDON and his seed for ever.
For there is silver in my mines and I bless God that it is rather there then in my coffers.
For I blessed God in St James's Park till I routed all the company.
For the officers of the peace are at variance with me, and the watchman smites me with his staff.
This is from the poem Jubilate Agno, which Smart wrote while an inmate at St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics -- it's best known for the section beginning "For I will consider my cat Jeoffry." I was looking through it for a fic, although I can't actually use it because it hadn't been published at the time the fic takes place. But I did want to share it. I love that in other bits he includes praise for chocolate and bookstores.
The final line of the section quoted above also provides the climax of one of the key sections of Benjamin Britten's 1943 cantata "Rejoice in the Lamb." This is the text of that movement, a composite of various lines of Smart's poem:
For I am under the same accusation with my Savior,
For they said, he is besides himself.
For the officers of the peace are at variance with me, and the watchman smites me with his staff.
For the silly fellow, silly fellow, is against me, and belongeth neither to me nor to my family.
For I am in twelve hardships, but he that was born of a virgin shall deliver me out of all.
Britten's setting of Smart's text also pays tribute to another artist made tongue-tied by authority; the organ motif that underlies the movement, and which is taken up by the choir at "Silly fellow, silly fellow," is the musical signature of Dmitri Shostakovich.
You can hear it here: the THING that happens at "smites me with his staff" is not as thunderously, cataclysmically effective in this recording as in the one I own, sadly enough (perhaps I should upload it), and it still makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I can only imagine what it sounds like live: the first time I ever heard it I was driving in my car and nearly had a wreck. But if you're driving, what are you doing reading this post?