Being waked out of my sleep by a snuff of Candle which offended me, I thus thought

Henry King 1592 (Worminghall, Buckinghamshire) – 1669 (Chichester)



Perhaps 'twas but conceit. Erroneous sence!
Thou art thine own distemper and offence.
Imagine then, that sick unwholsom steam
Was thy corruption breath'd into a dream.
Nor is it strange, when we in charnells dwell,
That all our thoughts of earth and frailty smell.
Man is a Candle, whose unhappy light
Burns in the day, and smothers in the night.
And as you see the dying taper waste,
By such degrees does he to darkness haste.
Here is the diff'rence: When our bodies lamps
Blinded by age, or choakt with mortall damps,
Now faint and dim and sickly 'gin to wink,
And in their hollow sockets lowly sink;
When all our vital fires ceasing to burn,
Leave nought but snuff and ashes in our Urn:
God will restore those fallen lights again,
And kindle them to an Eternal flame.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
33

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEEAAFFGGHI
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 778
Words 141
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18

Henry King

Henry King was an English poet who served as Bishop of Chichester. more…

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    "Being waked out of my sleep by a snuff of Candle which offended me, I thus thought" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/17640/being-waked-out-of-my-sleep-by-a-snuff-of-candle-which-offended-me,-i-thus-thought>.

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