My God to thee I dedicate – Scholarly Edition

[277]

My God to thee I dedicate
          This simple work of mine,
And also with it hart and soul;
          To be for ever thine.
No other motiue wil I haue,
          Then by it thee to praise.
And stir vp my poor frozen soul
          By loue it-self to raise.
O I desir neither tongue, nor pen
          But to extol Gods praise,
In which exces le melt away
          Ten thousand thousand ways,
And as one that is sick with loue1“I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love” (Canticles 5:8, Douay-Rheims Bible).
          Engraues on euery Tree
The Name and Praise of him she loues
          So shal it be with me.





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Source: 1658, p. 277; see Bodleian, pp. 1 and 3