Henry Vaughan: The World ("I saw Eternity the other night")

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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.

The darksome States-man hung with weights and woe,
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.

The fearfull miser on a heap of rust
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.

Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
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)

One of the 2007 cloud season's first ground sightings of Noctilucent clouds, Budapest, Hungary, 15 June 2007: photo by Veres Viktor (NASA). The first observations of these "night-shining" clouds by a satellite named "AIM" (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) occurred above 70 degrees north latitude on 25 May 2007. People on the ground began seeing the clouds on 6 June over Northern Europe. AIM is the first satellite mission dedicated to the study of these unusual clouds. These mystifying clouds are called Polar Mesospheric Clouds, or PMCs, when they are viewed from space and referred to as "night-shining" clouds or Noctilucent Clouds, when viewed by observers on Earth. The clouds form in an upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the mesosphere during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season which began in mid-May and extends through the end of August and are being seen by AIM’s instruments more frequently as the season progresses. They are also seen in the high latitudes during the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere. "It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. "These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed." (NASA Science News, 28 June 2007)

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