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809 Sidney Godolphin “Lord,when the wise men” ca.1630–40 “Lord, when the wise men” Lord, when the wise men came from far, Led to thy cradle by a star, Then did the shepherds too rejoice, Instructed by thy angel’s voice: Blest were the wise men in their skill, And shepherds in their harmless will. Wise men in tracing Nature’s laws Ascend unto the highest cause; Shepherds with humble fearfulness Walk safely, though their light be less: Though wise men better know the way It seems no honest heart can stray. There is no merit in the wise But love (the shepherds’ sacrifice). Wise men, all ways of knowledge past, To the shepherds’ wonder come at last: To know can only wonder breed, And not to know is wonder’s seed. A wise man at the altar bows And offers up his studied vows And is received; may not the tears, Which spring too from a shepherd’s fears, Religion in Early Stuart England, 1603–1638 810 And sighs upon his frailty spent, Though not distinct,1 be eloquent? ’Tis true,2 the object sanctifies All passions which within us rise; But since no creature comprehends The cause of causes, end of ends, He who himself vouchsafes to know Best pleases his Creator so. When then our sorrows we apply To our own wants and poverty, When we look up in all distress And our own misery confess, Sending both thanks and prayers above, Then, though we do not know, we love. [\ Text: Minor poets of the Caroline period, 3 vols., ed. George Saintsbury (Clarendon, 1905–21), 2:246–47.3 1 {clearly articulated} 2 {The final stanzas hinge on the distinction implicit in the previous one between the prayers that the wise man “offers up” to God and the shepherd’s fearful sense of his own “frailty.”} 3 {This is the first printed edition of Godolphin’s poems.} ...

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