Psalm 139 by Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Countess of Pembroke

	Psalm 139 by Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Countess of Pembroke 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. Thou walkest with me when I walk;     When to my bed for rest I go,             I find thee there,             And everywhere:     Not youngest thought in me doth grow, No, not one word I cast to talk     But yet unuttered thou dost know. If forth I march, thou goest before,     If back I turn, thou com'st behind:             So forth nor back             Thy guard I lack,     Nay on me too, thy hand I find. Well I thy wisdom may adore,     But never reach with earthy mind. To shun thy notice, leave thine eye,     O whither might I take my way?             To starry sphere?             Thy throne is there.     To dead men's undelightsome stay? There is thy walk, and there to lie     Unknown, in vain I should assay. O sun, whom light nor flight can match,     Suppose thy lightful flightful wings             Thou lend to me,             And I could flee     As far as thee the evening brings: Even led to west he would me catch,     Nor should I lurk with western things. Do thou thy best, O secret night,     In sable veil to cover me:             Thy sable veil             Shall vainly fail;     With day unmasked my night shall be, For night is day, and darkness light,     O father of all lights, to thee. Each inmost piece in me is thine:     While yet I in my mother dwelt,             All that me clad             From thee I had.     Thou in my frame hast strangely dealt: Needs in my praise thy works must shine     So inly them my thoughts have felt. Thou, how my back was beam-wise laid,     And raft'ring of my ribs, dost know;             Know'st every point             Of bone and joint,     How to this whole these parts did grow, In brave embroid'ry fair arrayed,     Though wrought in shop both dark and low. Nay fashionless, ere form I took,     Thy all and more beholding eye             My shapeless shape             Could not escape:     All these time framed successively Ere one had being, in the book     Of thy foresight enrolled did lie. My God, how I these studies prize,     That do thy hidden workings show!             Whose sum is such             No sum so much,     Nay, summed as sand they sumless grow. I lie to sleep, from sleep I rise,     Yet still in thought with thee I go. My God, if thou but one wouldst kill,     Then straigh would leave my further chase             This cursed brood             Inured to blood,     Whose graceless taunts at thy disgrace Have aimed oft; and hating still     Would with proud lies thy truth outface. Hate not I them, who thee do hate?     Thine, Lord, I will the censure be.             Detest I not             The cankered knot     Whom I against thee banded see? O Lord, thou know'st in highest rate     I hate them all as foes to me. Search me, my God, and prove my heart,     Examine me, and try my thought;             And mark in me             If ought there be     That hath with cause their anger wrought. If not (as not) my life's each part,     Lord, safely guide from danger brought. (Wr. probably before 1599; pub. 1823)
	Text source: The New Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse. Emrys Jones, Ed. New York: Oxford Univ Press, 1992. 475-477.