Eye - 10 March 2017
A fascinating poem from 1633 features a familiar Quaker phrase
Vast Ocean of Light
Vast Ocean of light, whose rayes surround
The Universe, who know’st nor ebb, nor shore,
Who lend’st the Sun his sparkling drop, to store
With overflowing beams Heav’n, ayer, ground,
Whose depths beneath the Centre none can sound,
Whose heights ‘bove heav’n, and thoughts so lofty soar,
Whose breadth no feet, no lines, no chains, no eyes survey,
Whose length no thoughts can reach, no worlds can bound,
What cloud can mask thy face? where can thy ray
Find an Eclipse? what night can hide Eternal Day?
Our Seas (a drop of thine) with arms dispread
Through all the earth make drunk the thirsty plains;
Our Sun (a spark of thine) dark shadows drains,
Guilds all the world, paints earth, revives the dead;
Seas (through earth pipes distill’d) in Cisterns shed,
And power their liver springs in river veins.
The Sun peeps through jet clouds, and when his face, and gleams
Are maskt, his eyes their light through ayers spread;
Shall dullard earth bury life-giving streams?
Earths foggs impound heav’ns light? hell quench heav’n-kindling beams?
How miss I then? in bed I sought by night,
But found not him in rest, nor rest without him.
I sought in towns, in broadest streets I sought him,
But found not him where all are lost: dull sight
Thou canst not see him in himself: his light
Is maskt in light: brightness his cloud about him.
Where, when, how he’l be found, there, then, thus seek thy love:
Thy Lamb in flocks, thy Food with appetite,
Thy Rest on resting dayes, thy Turtle Dove
Seek on his cross: there, then, thus Love stands nail’d with love.
Phineas Fletcher
Cardiff Friend David B Lawrence has alerted Eye to this fascinating poem, written in 1633, that predates by twenty years the emergence of a group of seekers who were to become the Religious Society of Friends. Its interest, for Friends, lies in its title, as Quakers have cherished the phrase used for centuries.
Phineas Fletcher, the author, was born in Cranbrook in Kent in 1582 and died in 1650. He wrote throughout his life, leaving a large body of literature for posterity, though he is little known today.
His collected works include three volumes of religious prose, an epic, a drama, several medium-length verse narratives, pastoral eclogues, verse epistles, hymns, psalms, translations, various songs, occasional pieces, lyrics and devotional poems.
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