The poetical works of Thomas Traherne faithfully reprinted from the author's original manuscript together with Poems of Felicity reprinted from the Burney manuscript and Poems from Various Sources: Edited with preface and notes by Gladys I. Wade |
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My Spirit. |
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 | The poetical works of Thomas Traherne |  |
My Spirit.
My naked simple Life was I:
That Act so strongly shin'd
Upon the Earth, the Sea, the Sky,
It was the Substance of the Mind;
The Sense its self was I.
I felt no Dross nor Matter in my Soul,
No Brims nor Borders, such as in a Bowl
We see: My Essence was Capacity.
That felt all things;
The Thought that springs
There-from's its Self: It hath no other Wings
To spread abroad, nor Eys to see,
No pair of Hands to feel,
Nor Knees to kneel:
But being Simple, like the Deity,
In its own Center is a Sphere,
Not limited, but evry-where.
That Act so strongly shin'd
Upon the Earth, the Sea, the Sky,
It was the Substance of the Mind;
The Sense its self was I.
I felt no Dross nor Matter in my Soul,
No Brims nor Borders, such as in a Bowl
We see: My Essence was Capacity.
That felt all things;
The Thought that springs
There-from's its Self: It hath no other Wings
To spread abroad, nor Eys to see,
No pair of Hands to feel,
Nor Knees to kneel:
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In its own Center is a Sphere,
Not limited, but evry-where.
It acts not from a Center to
Its Object, as remote;
But present is, where it doth go
To view the Being it doth note:
What ever it doth do,
It doth not by another Engin mov,
But by and of its self doth Activ prov:
Its Essence is transform'd into a tru
And perfect Act.
And so exact
Hath God appear'd in this mysterious Fact,
That 'tis all Ey, all Act, all Sight;
Nay, what it pleas can be;
Not only see
Or do: for 'tis more voluble than Light,
Which can put on ten thousand Forms,
Being cloath'd with what its self adorns.
Its Object, as remote;
But present is, where it doth go
To view the Being it doth note:
What ever it doth do,
It doth not by another Engin mov,
But by and of its self doth Activ prov:
Its Essence is transform'd into a tru
And perfect Act.
And so exact
Hath God appear'd in this mysterious Fact,
That 'tis all Ey, all Act, all Sight;
Nay, what it pleas can be;
Not only see
Or do: for 'tis more voluble than Light,
Which can put on ten thousand Forms,
Being cloath'd with what its self adorns.
This made me present evermore
With whatsoere I saw.
An Object, if it were before
Mine Ey, was by Dame Nature's Law
Within my Soul: Her Store
Was all at once within me; all her Treasures
Were my immediat and internal Pleasures;
Substantial Joys, which did inform my Mind.
With all she wrought
My Soul was fraught,
And evry Object in my Heart, a Thought
Begot or was: I could not tell
Whether the Things did there
Themselvs appear,
Which in my Spirit truly seem'd to dwell:
Or whether my conforming Mind
Were not ev'n all that therin shin'd.
With whatsoere I saw.
An Object, if it were before
Mine Ey, was by Dame Nature's Law
Within my Soul: Her Store
Was all at once within me; all her Treasures
Were my immediat and internal Pleasures;
Substantial Joys, which did inform my Mind.
With all she wrought
My Soul was fraught,
And evry Object in my Heart, a Thought
Begot or was: I could not tell
Whether the Things did there
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Which in my Spirit truly seem'd to dwell:
Or whether my conforming Mind
Were not ev'n all that therin shin'd.
But yet of this I was most sure,
That at the utmost length
(So worthy is it to endure)
My Soul could best express its Strength:
It was so quick and pure
That all my Mind was wholy Evry-where;
What-e'r it saw, 'twas actually there;
The Sun, ten-thousand Stages off, was nigh;
The utmost Star,
Tho seen from far,
Was present in the Apple of mine Ey:
There was my Sight, my Life, my Sense,
My Substance, ev'n my Mind:
My Spirit shin'd
Ev'n there, not by a transeunt Influence.
The Act was immanent, yet there;
The Thing remote, yet felt ev'n here.
That at the utmost length
(So worthy is it to endure)
My Soul could best express its Strength:
It was so quick and pure
That all my Mind was wholy Evry-where;
What-e'r it saw, 'twas actually there;
The Sun, ten-thousand Stages off, was nigh;
The utmost Star,
Tho seen from far,
Was present in the Apple of mine Ey:
There was my Sight, my Life, my Sense,
My Substance, ev'n my Mind:
My Spirit shin'd
Ev'n there, not by a transeunt Influence.
The Act was immanent, yet there;
The Thing remote, yet felt ev'n here.
O Joy! O Wonder and Delight!
O sacred Mystery!
My Soul a Spirit wide and bright!
An Image of the Deity!
A most Substantial Light!
That being Greatest which doth Nothing seem!
Why, 'twas my All: I nothing did esteem
But that alone; A strange, a living Sphere!
A deep Abyss
That sees and is
The only proper Place of hev'nly Bliss.
To its Creätor 'tis so near
In Lov and Excellence,
In Life and Sense,
In spiritual Worth and Frame; so Dear:
That it, without Hyperbole,
Is own'd His Son and Friend to be.
O sacred Mystery!
My Soul a Spirit wide and bright!
An Image of the Deity!
A most Substantial Light!
That being Greatest which doth Nothing seem!
Why, 'twas my All: I nothing did esteem
But that alone; A strange, a living Sphere!
A deep Abyss
That sees and is
The only proper Place of hev'nly Bliss.
To its Creätor 'tis so near
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In Life and Sense,
In spiritual Worth and Frame; so Dear:
That it, without Hyperbole,
Is own'd His Son and Friend to be.
A strange extended Orb of Joy
Proceeding from within,
Which did on evry side display
Its force; and being nigh of Kin
To God, did evry way
Dilate its Self ev'n instantaneously,
Yet an Indivisible Center stay,
In it surrounding all Eternity.
'Twas not a Sphere;
Yet did appear
One infinit: 'Twas somwhat evry-where.
And what it had a Power to see,
On that it always shin'd:
For 'twas a Mind
Exerted, reaching to Infinity:
'Twas not a Sphere; but 'twas a Power
More high and lasting than a Tower.
Proceeding from within,
Which did on evry side display
Its force; and being nigh of Kin
To God, did evry way
Dilate its Self ev'n instantaneously,
Yet an Indivisible Center stay,
In it surrounding all Eternity.
'Twas not a Sphere;
Yet did appear
One infinit: 'Twas somwhat evry-where.
And what it had a Power to see,
On that it always shin'd:
For 'twas a Mind
Exerted, reaching to Infinity:
'Twas not a Sphere; but 'twas a Power
More high and lasting than a Tower.
O wondrous Self! O Sphere of Light!
Emblem of Day most fair!
O Pow'r and Act, next Infinit,
Like subtil and unbounded Air!
O Living Orb of Sight!
Thou that within me art, my Self! An Ey
Or Temple of a wide Infinity!
O What a World art Thou! a World within!
In thee appear
All Things, and are
Alive in Thee! super-substantial, rare,
Abov themselvs, and near a-kin
To those pure Things we find
In His Great Mind
Who made the World! Tho now eclyps'd by Sin,
Yet this within my Intellect
Is found, when on it I reflect.
Emblem of Day most fair!
O Pow'r and Act, next Infinit,
Like subtil and unbounded Air!
O Living Orb of Sight!
Thou that within me art, my Self! An Ey
Or Temple of a wide Infinity!
O What a World art Thou! a World within!
In thee appear
All Things, and are
Alive in Thee! super-substantial, rare,
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To those pure Things we find
In His Great Mind
Who made the World! Tho now eclyps'd by Sin,
Yet this within my Intellect
Is found, when on it I reflect.
| The poetical works of Thomas Traherne | |