
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Dedication
- General Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Poems from the Dobell Folio
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- The Preparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- The Improvment
- The Approach
- Dumnesse
- Silence
- My Spirit
- The Apprehension (‘Right Apprehension. II’)
- Fullnesse
- Nature
- Ease
- Speed
- The Designe (‘The Choice’)
- The Person
- The Estate
- The Enquirie
- The Circulation
- Amendment
- The Demonstration
- The Anticipation
- The Recovery
- Another
- Love
- Thoughts. I
- Blisse (Stanzas 5 & 6, ‘The Apostacy’)
- Thoughts. II
- ‘Ye hidden Nectars’
- Thoughts. III
- Desire
- ‘In thy Presence’ (Thoughts. IV)
- Goodnesse
- Poems of Felicity
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Thoughts. III
from Poems from the Dobell Folio
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
- The Salutation
- Wonder
- Eden
- Innocence
- The Preparative
- The Instruction
- The Vision
- The Rapture
- The Improvment
- The Approach
- Dumnesse
- Silence
- My Spirit
- The Apprehension (‘Right Apprehension. II’)
- Fullnesse
- Nature
- Ease
- Speed
- The Designe (‘The Choice’)
- The Person
- The Estate
- The Enquirie
- The Circulation
- Amendment
- The Demonstration
- The Anticipation
- The Recovery
- Another
- Love
- Thoughts. I
- Blisse (Stanzas 5 & 6, ‘The Apostacy’)
- Thoughts. II
- ‘Ye hidden Nectars’
- Thoughts. III
- Desire
- ‘In thy Presence’ (Thoughts. IV)
- Goodnesse
- Poems of Felicity
- The Ceremonial Law
- Poems from the Early Notebook
- Textual Emendations and Notes
- Manuscript Foliation of Poems
- Glossary
- Index of Titles and First Lines
Summary
Thoughts are the Angels which we send abroad,
To visit all the Parts of Gods Abode.
Thoughts are the Things wherin we all confess
The Quintessence of Sin and Holiness
Is laid. All Wisdom in a Thought doth Shine,
By Thoughts alone the Soul is made Divine.
Thoughts are the Springs of all our Actions here
On Earth, tho they them selvs do not appear.
They are the Springs of Beauty, Order, Peace,
The Cities Gallantries, the feilds Increas.
Rule, Goverment and Kingdoms flow from them,
And so doth all the New Jerusalem.
At least the Glory, Splendor and Delight,
For tis by Thoughts that even she is Bright.
Thoughts are the Things wherwith even God is Crownd,
And as the Soul without thems useless found,
So are all other Creatures too. A Thought
Is even the very Cream of all he wrought.
All Holy fear, and Love, and Reverence,
With Honor, Joy and Prais, as well as Sence,
Are hidden in our Thoughts. Thoughts are the Things
That us affect: The Hony and the Stings
Of all that is, are Seated in a Thought,
Even while it seemeth weak, and next to Nought.
The Matter of all Pleasure, Virtue, Worth,
Grief, Anger, Hate, Revenge, which Words set forth,
Are Thoughts alone. Thoughts are the highest Things,
The very Offspring of the King of Kings.
Thoughts are a kind of Strange Celestial Creature,
That when they're Good, they're such in evry Feature,
They bear the Image of their father's face,
And Beautifie even all his Dwelling Place:
So Nimble and Volatile, unconfind,
Illimited, to which no Form's assignd,
So Changeable, Capacious, Easy, free,
That what it self doth pleas a Thought may be.
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- The Works of Thomas Traherne VIPoems from the 'Dobell Folio', Poems of Felicity, The Ceremonial Law, Poems from the 'Early Notebook', pp. 69 - 70Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014