Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore,
Never tired pilgrim’s limbs affected slumber more,
Than my weary sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast!
O come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest.

These lines come from Thomas Campion’s devotional lyric “Never weather-beaten sail,” a poem that circulated in the early seventeenth century and was later printed among his works. Campion—also a composer—often wrote songs and poems in a clear, musical stanza form, and here he adopts the voice of a speaker near death (or in profound spiritual exhaustion) who yearns for release. The imagery is drawn from familiar early modern commonplaces: the storm-tossed ship seeking harbor and the pilgrim craving sleep, both turned into metaphors for the soul’s desire to return to God. The closing petition addresses Christ directly, framing death as rest and homecoming.

The speaker likens the approach of death to longed-for arrival: a storm-worn ship gladly bending toward harbor and an exhausted pilgrim craving sleep. Against these images of safe landfall and restorative rest, the “weary sprite” (soul) yearns to leave the “troubled breast,” turning physical and spiritual fatigue into a devotional plea. The final couplet addresses Christ directly, framing death not as terror but as release and homecoming. The stanza’s balanced comparisons and cadence heighten its songlike quality, typical of Campion’s lyric art, while its theology emphasizes consolation: the soul’s rest is found in God rather than in worldly remedies.