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I saw Eternity the other night: Noctilucent clouds over Bargerveen, Drenthe, The Netherlands: photo by Hrald, 23 June 2009
I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,
............All calm, as it was bright,
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years
..................Driv'n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov'd, In which the world
............And all her train were hurl'd;
The doting Lover in his queintest strain
..................Did their Complain,
Neer him, his Lute, his fancy, and his flights,
..................Wits sour delights,
With gloves, and knots the silly snares of pleasure
..................Yet his dear Treasure,
All scatter'd lay, while he his eys did pour
..................Upon a flowr.
Like a thick midnight-fog mov'd there so slow,
...........He did nor stay, nor go;
Condemning thoughts (like sad Ecclipses) scowl
..................Upon his soul,
And Clouds of crying witnesses without
...........Pursued him with one shout.
Yet dig'd the Mole, and lest his ways be found
..................Workt under ground,
Where he did clutch his prey, but one did see
..................That policie,
Churches and altars fed him, Perjuries
..................Were gnats and flies,
It rain'd about him bloud and tears, but he
..................Drank them as free.
Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
............His own hands with the dust,
Yet would not place one peece above, but lives
..................In feare of theeves.
Thousands there were as frantick as himself,
............And hug'd each one his pelf,
The down-right Epicure plac'd heav'n in sense
..................And scorn'd pretence
While others slipt into a wide Excesse
..................Said little lesse;
The weaker sort slight, triviall wares Inslave
..................Who think them brave,
And poor, despised truth sate Counting by
..................Their victory.
And sing, and weep, soar'd up into the Ring,
............But most would use no wing.
O fool (said I,) thus to prefer dark night
.................Before true light,
To live in grots, and caves, and hate the day
............Because it shews the way,
The way which from this dead and dark abode
.................Leads up to God,
A way where you might tread the Sun, and be
.................More bright than he.
But as I did their madness so discusse,
.................One whisper'd thus,
This ring the Bride-groome did for none provide
.................But for His bride.
Henry Vaughan (1621-1674): The World ("I saw Eternity the other night"), from Silex Scintillans (I), 1650
Noctilucent clouds, Szubin, Poland: photo by Marek Nikodem, 12 July 2009 (via Spaceweather)
Noctilucent clouds above a lake, Bargerveen, Drenthe, The Netherlands: photo by Hrald, 23 June 2009
Noctilucent clouds, UK: photo by Nick Bramhall, 28 June 2007