Summer Quotations - Tuesday 26th July

In a post on Twitter, someone put up this poem by George Herbert:



It is not a quick read. Eventually the words resolved themselves into a list of some of the many things things that make up prayer. I had to do a bit of googling around to find my way in. Is the sinner's "towre", which the footnote kindly explains as "fort", protecting him from the wrath of God, or keeping him safe from sin?

Another commentary explains that "Angels age" means "eternal".

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knapton_Church_Interior_-_Angel_carving_on_the_roof_-_geograph.org.uk_-_278153.jpg

I love the third line... "The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage"

After the fury and violence of the middle lines, comes a more gentle, soothing tone.

"The milkie way, the bird of Paradise, Church-bels beyond the stars heard...."

I remember lying our under the stars in the back garden when I was a child, looking at the bright whiteness of the Milky Way...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Center_of_the_Milky_Way_Galaxy_from_the_mountains_of_West_Virginia_-_4th_of_July_2010.jpg

So where's the quotation? Sometimes on Sunday mornings we listen to the Radio 4 programme "Something Understood". usually delivered by Mark Tully (I always associate him with India, "The land of spices"). I though it was rather a "New-Agey" sort of title for the programme. But it's not New at all.



Here's a link to George Herbert's church St Andrew's, Bemerton where they discuss the poem
http://www.georgeherbert.org.uk/Archive/selected_work_27.html