.
Eclipse of the midnight sun, Sallatunturi, Finnish Lapland, c. 35 km. north of the Arctic Circle: photo by B. Art Braafhart, 2 June 2011
.........Dear night! this world's defeat;
The stop to busie fools; cares check and curb;
The day of Spirits; my souls calm retreat
..........Which none disturb!
....Christs progress, and his prayer time;
....The hours to which high Heaven doth chime.
.........God's silent, searching flight:
When my Lords head is fill'd with dew, and all
His locks are wet with the clear drops of night;
..........His still, soft call;
....His knocking time; The souls dumb watch,
....When Spirits their fair kindred catch.
.........Were all my loud, evil days
Calm and unhaunted as is thy dark Tent,
Whose peace but by some Angels wing or voice
..........Is seldom rent;
....Then I in Heaven all the long year
....Would keep, and never wander here.
.........But living where the sun
Doth all things wake, and where all mix and tyre
Themselves and others, I consent and run
..........To ev'ry myre,
....And by this worlds ill-guiding light,
....Erre more than I can do by night.
.........There is in God (some say)
A deep, but dazling darkness; As men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
..........See not all clear;
....O for that night! where I in him
....Might live invisible and dim.
Henry Vaughan (1621-1674): The Night (excerpt), from Silex Scintillans (II), 1655
The stop to busie fools; cares check and curb;
The day of Spirits; my souls calm retreat
..........Which none disturb!
....Christs progress, and his prayer time;
....The hours to which high Heaven doth chime.
.........God's silent, searching flight:
When my Lords head is fill'd with dew, and all
His locks are wet with the clear drops of night;
..........His still, soft call;
....His knocking time; The souls dumb watch,
....When Spirits their fair kindred catch.
.........Were all my loud, evil days
Calm and unhaunted as is thy dark Tent,
Whose peace but by some Angels wing or voice
..........Is seldom rent;
....Then I in Heaven all the long year
....Would keep, and never wander here.
.........But living where the sun
Doth all things wake, and where all mix and tyre
Themselves and others, I consent and run
..........To ev'ry myre,
....And by this worlds ill-guiding light,
....Erre more than I can do by night.
.........There is in God (some say)
A deep, but dazling darkness; As men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
..........See not all clear;
....O for that night! where I in him
....Might live invisible and dim.
Henry Vaughan (1621-1674): The Night (excerpt), from Silex Scintillans (II), 1655
Eclipse of the midnight sun, Sallatunturi, Finnish Lapland, c. 35 km. north of the Arctic Circle: photo by B. Art Braafhart, 2 June 2011
Eclipse of the midnight sun, Sallatunturi, Finnish Lapland, c. 35 km. north of the Arctic Circle: photo by B. Art Braafhart, 2 June 2011
Eclipse of the midnight sun, Sallatunturi, Finnish Lapland, c. 35 km. north of the Arctic Circle: photo by B. Art Braafhart, 2 June 2011
