The World Analysis

1I saw Eternity the other night,
2Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
3All calm, as it was bright;
4And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
5Driv'n by the spheres
6Like a vast shadow mov'd; in which the world
7And all her train were hurl'd.
8The doting lover in his quaintest strain
9Did there complain;
10Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his flights,
11Wit's sour delights,
12With gloves, and knots, the silly snares of pleasure,
13Yet his dear treasure
14All scatter'd lay, while he his eyes did pour
15Upon a flow'r.

16The darksome statesman hung with weights and woe,
17Like a thick midnight-fog mov'd there so slow,
18He did not stay, nor go;
19Condemning thoughts (like sad eclipses) scowl
20Upon his soul,
21And clouds of crying witnesses without
22Pursued him with one shout.
23Yet digg'd the mole, and lest his ways be found,
24Work'd under ground,
25Where he did clutch his prey; but one did see
26That policy;
27Churches and altars fed him; perjuries
28Were gnats and flies;
29It rain'd about him blood and tears, but he
30Drank them as free.

31The fearful miser on a heap of rust
32Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
33His own hands with the dust,
34Yet would not place one piece above, but lives
35In fear of thieves;
36Thousands there were as frantic as himself,
37And hugg'd each one his pelf;
38The downright epicure plac'd heav'n in sense,
39And scorn'd pretence,
40While others, slipp'd into a wide excess,
41Said little less;
42The weaker sort slight, trivial wares enslave,
43Who think them brave;
44And poor despised Truth sate counting by
45Their victory.

46Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
47And sing, and weep, soar'd up into the ring;
48But most would use no wing.
49O fools (said I) thus to prefer dark night
50Before true light,
51To live in grots and caves, and hate the day
52Because it shews the way,
53The way, which from this dead and dark abode
54Leads up to God,
55A way where you might tread the sun, and be
56More bright than he.
57But as I did their madness so discuss
58One whisper'd thus,
59"This ring the Bridegroom did for none provide,
60But for his bride."

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