Poetry Wednesday

The first part of Sidney's Psalm 139 (read it aloud to feel it in your mouth - somehow these words direct an elegant dance):

O Lord, O Lord, in me there lieth nought
    But to thy search revealed lies,
            For when I sit
            Thou markest it;
    No less thou notest when I rise;
Yea, closest closet of my thought
    Hath open windows to thine eyes.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 6

Domine, ne in furore.

Lord, lett not mee a worm by thee be shent,
      While thou art in the heate of thy displeasure;
Nor let thy rage of my due punnishment
                  Become the measure.


But mercy, Lord, lett mercy thine descend,
      For I am weake, and in my weaknes languish:
Lord, help, for ev'n my bones their marrow spend
                  With cruel anguish.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 5

Verba mea auribus.

Ponder the wordes, O Lord, that I do say,
      Consider what I meditate in me:
      O, harken to my voice which calls on thee,
My king; my God, for I to thee will pray.
      Soe shall my voice clime to thine eares betime:
For unto thee I will my praier send
      With earliest entry of the morning prime,
And will my waiting eies to thee-ward bend.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 4

Cum invocarem.

Heare me, O, heare me when I call,
         O God, God of my equity !
         Thou sett'st me free when I was thrall,
         Have mercy therefore still on me,
         And hearken how I pray to thee.

O men, whose fathers were but men,
         Till when will ye my honor high
         Stain with your blasphemies? till when
         Such pleasure take in vanity?
         And only haunt where lies do lye.

Yet know this to, that God did take,
         When he chose me, a godly one;
         Such one, I say, that when I make
         My cryeng plaintes to him alone,
         He will give good eare to my moane.

O, tremble then with awfull will;
         Sinne from all rule in you depose,
         Talk with your harts and yet be still;
         And, when your chamber you do close,
         Your selves, yet to your selves disclose.

The sacrifices sacrifie
         Of just desires, on justice staid;
         Trust in that Lord that cannot ly.
         Indeed full many folkes have said,
         From whence shall come to us such aid?

But, Lord, lift thou upon our sight
         The shining; cleerenes of thy face;
         Where I have found more harts delight;
         Then they whose store in harvests space
         Of grain and wine fills stoaring place.

So I in peace and peacefull blisse
         Will lay me down and take my rest:
         For it is thou, Lord, thou it is,
         By pow'r of whose own onely brest
         I dwell, laid up in safest neast.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 3

Domine, quid multiplicati?

Lord, how do they increase
That hatefull never cease
         To breed my grievous trouble?
How many ones there be
That all against poor me
         Their numerous strength redouble?

Even multitudes be they
That to my soul do saye
         No help for you remaineth
In God, on whom you build.
Yet, Lord, thou art my shield;
         In thee my glorie raigneth.

The Lord lifts up my head ;
To him my voice I spread;
         From holy hill he heard me:
I laid mo downe and slept,
While he me safelie kept,
         And safe from sleepe I rear'd me.

I will not be afraid,
Though legions round be laide,
         Which all against me gather:
I say no more but this,
Up, Lord, now time it is,
         Help me, my God, and Father!

For thou, with cruel blows
On jawbone of my foes,
         My causelesse wrong hast wroken;
Thou those men's teeth which bite,
Venomed with godlesse spight,
         Hast in their malice broken.

Salvation doth belong
Unto the Lord most strong;
         He it is that defendeth:
And on those blessed same
Which beare his people's name
         His blessing he extendeth.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 2

Quare fremuerunt gentes?

What ailes this Heath'nish rage? what do the people meane,
         To mutter murmurs vaine?
Why do these earthly kings and lords such meetings make,
         And councell joyntly take
Against the Lord of Lords, the lord of ev'rie thing,
         And his annointed king?
Come, let us break their bonds, say they, and fondly say,
         And cast their yokes away.
But he shall them deride who by the Heav'ns is borne,
         He them shall laugh to scorn,
And after speak to them with breath of wrathfull fire;
         And vex them in his ire.
And say, O kings, yet have I set my King upon
         My holy hill Sion;
And I will (saith this king) the Lords decree display,
         And say that he did say,
Thou art my Son indeed, this day begot by me:
         Ask, I will give to thee
The heath'n for thy childs right, and will thy realm extend
         Far as worlds farthest end;

With iron scepter bruise thou shalt and piecemeal break
         These men like potsherds weak.
Therefore, O kings! be wise, O rulers, rule your minde,
         That knowledge you may finde.
Serve God, serve him with fear, rejoice in him, but soe
         That joy with trembling goe;
With loving homage kiss that only Son he hath,
         Lest you inflame his wrath ;
Whereof if but a sparke once kindled be, you all
         From your way perish shall;
And then they that in him their only trust do rest,
         O, they be rightly blest!

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 1

Beatus vir.

He blessed is who neither loosely treads
The straying steps as wicked councel leads,
         Ne for bad mates in way of sinners waiteth,
         Nor yet himself with idle scorners seateth;
But on Gods law his whole delight doth bind,
Which night and day hee calls to marking mind.

He shall be like a freshly planted tree,
To which sweet springs of waters neighbours be;
         Whose branches faile not timely fruite to nourish.
         Nor withered leaf shall make it faile to flourish:
So all the things whereto that man doth bend
Shall prosper still with well succeeding end.

Such blessing shall not wicked wretches see,
But like vile chaff with wind shall scattred be;
         For neither shall the men in sinne delighted
         Consist when they to highest doome are cited,
Ne yet shall suff'red be a place to take
Where godly men do their assembly make.

For God doth know, and knowing doth approve
The trade of them that just proceedings love:
         But they that sinne in sinfull breast do cherish,
         The way they go, shall be the way to perish.

Ruskin on Sidney

While googling for clarification of a spotty text in the psalms of Philip Sidney and Mary Herbert, I stumbled upon John Ruskin's lengthy commentary on the Sidneian Psalms and their metres. It beginneth heere.

Grr

I'm a "completist" - when possible I get the complete works, the complete discography, etc. So I ordered a 1992 edition of the Sidneian Psalms from a bookshop in England. It arrived this morning in all its utterly useless abridged, modernised-spelling ignominy. Abridged! WTF?

The Sidneian Psalms online!

Here's a gem of English psalmody: the 1823 edition of the Psalm translations of Philip Sidney (nos. 1-43), completed by his sister, Mary Herbert, after his death in 1586. John Donne wrote a short poem about their work.