Today (Oct. 10) marks the anniversary of the death of English poet and priest, Thomas Traherne…
We honor the occasion with five excellent Thomas Traherne poems …
Thomas Traherne (1636? – 1674) was an English poet, clergyman, theologian, and religious writer. Traherne’s poems frequently explore the glory of creation and what he perceived as his intimate relationship with God. His writing conveys an ardent, almost childlike love of God, and is compared to similar themes in the works of later poets William Blake, Walt Whitman, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. (via Wikipedia)
The Instruction
Thomas Traherne
Found in:
The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne
(FREE Ebook Available via Google Books)
I.
Spue out thy filth, thy flesh abjure;
Let not contingents thee defile,
For transients only are impure,
And aery things thy soul beguile.
II.
Unfelt, unseen, let those things be
Which to thy spirit were unknown,
When to thy blessed infancy
The world, thyself, thy God was shewn.
III.
All that is great and stable stood
Before thy purer eyes at first:
All that in visibles is good
Or pure, or fair, or unaccurst.
IV.
Whatever else thou now dost see
In custom, action, or desire,
‘Tis but a part of misery
In which all men at once conspire.
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IMAGE CREDIT: Thomas Traherne (Stained Glass at Hereford Cathedral by Tom Denny). Creative Commons License via Wikimedia Commons.
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