Mysticism in English Literature by Caroline F. E. Spurgeon
page 69 of 156 (44%)
page 69 of 156 (44%)
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The soul to feel the flesh, and the flesh to feel the chain.
This is the description--always unmistakable--of the supreme mystic experience, the joy of the outward flight, the pain of the return, and it could only have been written by one who in some measure had knowledge of it. This, together with the exquisite little poem _The Visionary_, which describes a similar experience, and _The Philosopher_, stand apart as expressions of spiritual vision, and are among the most perfect mystic poems in English. Her realisation of the meaning of common things, her knowledge that they hold the secret of the universe, and her crystallisation of this in verse, place her with Blake and Wordsworth. What have those lonely mountains worth revealing? More glory and more grief than I can tell: The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell. And finally, the sense of continuous life--one central, all-sustaining Life--of the oneness of God and man, has never been more nobly expressed than in what is her best-known poem, the last lines she ever wrote:-- O God within my breast, Almighty, ever-present Deity! Life--that in me has rest, As I--undying Life--have power in Thee! * * * * * |
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