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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Dedication
- General Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Poems from the Dobell Folio
- Poems of Felicity
- Dedication
- The Author to the Critical Peruser
- The Publisher to the Reader
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- An Infant-Ey
- The Return
- The Præparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- News
- Felicity
- Adam's Fall
- The World
- The Apostacy (‘Blisse’, stanzas 5 & 6)
- Solitude
- Poverty
- Dissatisfaction
- The Bible
- Christendom
- On Christmas-Day
- Bells. I
- Bells. II
- Churches. I
- Churches. II
- Misapprehension
- The Improvment
- The Odour
- Admiration
- The Approach
- Nature
- Eas
- Dumness
- My Spirit
- Silence
- Right Apprehension
- Right Apprehension. II (‘The Apprehension’)
- Fulness
- Speed
- The Choice (‘The Designe’)
- The Person
- The Image
- The Estate
- The Evidence
- The Enquiry
- Shadows in the Water
- On Leaping over the Moon
- ‘To the same purpos’
- Sight
- Walking
- The Dialogue
- Dreams
- The Inference. I
- The Inference. II
- The City
- Insatiableness. I
- Insatiableness. II
- Consummation
- Hosanna
- The Review. I
- The Review. II
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Christendom
from Poems of Felicity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Dedication
- General Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Poems from the Dobell Folio
- Poems of Felicity
- Dedication
- The Author to the Critical Peruser
- The Publisher to the Reader
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- An Infant-Ey
- The Return
- The Præparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- News
- Felicity
- Adam's Fall
- The World
- The Apostacy (‘Blisse’, stanzas 5 & 6)
- Solitude
- Poverty
- Dissatisfaction
- The Bible
- Christendom
- On Christmas-Day
- Bells. I
- Bells. II
- Churches. I
- Churches. II
- Misapprehension
- The Improvment
- The Odour
- Admiration
- The Approach
- Nature
- Eas
- Dumness
- My Spirit
- Silence
- Right Apprehension
- Right Apprehension. II (‘The Apprehension’)
- Fulness
- Speed
- The Choice (‘The Designe’)
- The Person
- The Image
- The Estate
- The Evidence
- The Enquiry
- Shadows in the Water
- On Leaping over the Moon
- ‘To the same purpos’
- Sight
- Walking
- The Dialogue
- Dreams
- The Inference. I
- The Inference. II
- The City
- Insatiableness. I
- Insatiableness. II
- Consummation
- Hosanna
- The Review. I
- The Review. II
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Summary
When first mine Infant-Ear
Of Christendom did hear,
I much admir'd what kind of Place or Thing
It was of which the Folk did talk:
What Coast, what Region, what therin
Did mov, or might be seen to walk.
My great Desire
Like ardent fire
Did long to know what Things did ly behind
That Mystic Name, to which mine Ey was blind.
Som Depth it did conceal,
Which till it did reveal
Its self to me, no Quiet, Peace, or Rest,
Could I by any Means attain;
My earnest Thoughts did me molest
Till som one should the thing explain:
I thought it was
A Glorious Place,
Where Souls might dwell in all Delight and Bliss;
So thought, yet fear'd that I the Truth might miss:
Among ten thousand things,
Gold, Silver, Cherub's Wings,
Pearls, Rubies, Diamonds, a Church with Spires,
Masks, Stages, Games and Plays,
That then might suit my yong Desires,
Feathers, and Farthings, Holidays,
Cards, Musick, Dice,
So much in price;
A City did before mine Eys present
Its self, wherin there reigned sweet Content.
A Town beyond the Seas,
Whose Prospect much did pleas,
And to my Soul so sweetly raise Delight
As if a long expected Joy,
Shut up in that transforming Sight,
Would into me its Self convey;
And Blessedness
I there possess,
As if that City stood on my own Ground,
And all the Profit mine which there was found.
Among ten thousand things,
Gold, Silver, Cherub's Wings,
Pearls, Rubies, Diamonds, a Church with Spires,
Masks, Stages, Games and Plays,
That then might suit my yong Desires,
Feathers, and Farthings, Holidays,
Cards, Musick, Dice,
So much in price;
A City did before mine Eys present
Its self, wherin there reigned sweet Content.
A Town beyond the Seas,
Whose Prospect much did pleas,
And to my Soul so sweetly raise Delight
As if a long expected Joy,
Shut up in that transforming Sight,
Would into me its Self convey;
And Blessedness
I there possess,
As if that City stood on my own Ground,
And all the Profit mine which there was found.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Works of Thomas Traherne VIPoems from the 'Dobell Folio', Poems of Felicity, The Ceremonial Law, Poems from the 'Early Notebook', pp. 123 - 126Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014