This week’s poems are about eternity, and our human appreciation of it.
We start with Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, with his “Little Things”, then Emily Dickinson emphasises Brewer’s view of eternity in “Forever — is composed of Nows —” before Robert Herrick completes the set with the aptly titled “Eternity”.
Poem 82. Little Things
Thus the little minutes,
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810—1897)
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.
Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And the pleasant land.
Thus the little minutes, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of eternity.
This is a short poem, but it expresses so well how everything is made of smaller components and then extends that metaphor to show that eternity is made of separate minutes.
Brewer is best known as the creator of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which is a fantastic reference book for anyone interested in legends, myth and the English language.
Links
- Read Brewer’s dictionary online at archive.org.
Poem 83. Forever — is composed of Nows
Let Months dissolve in further Months –
Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)
And Years – exhale in Years –
Forever – is composed of Nows –
‘Tis not a different time –
Except for Infiniteness –
And Latitude of Home –
From this – experienced Here –
Remove the Dates – to These –
Let Months dissolve in further Months –
And Years – exhale in Years –
Without Debate – or Pause –
Or Celebrated Days –
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Dominies –
Very like Brewer, Emily Dickinson describes eternity as an endless succession of instants. She suggests that there is no difference between the present and eternity since they are joined by an infinite number of moments.
The second stanza develops this idea, proposing that eternity differs only from the present because its constituent moments are anonymous: there are no identifiable days, months or years since they are innumerable.
The third stanza makes the point that it is our human constructions: debate, pauses and special days, that make the difference between our present and some distant eternal duration.
Poem 84. Eternity
And these mine eyes shall see
Robert Herrick (1591—1674)
All times, how they
Are lost i’ th’ sea
Of vast eternity
O years! and age! farewell:
Behold I go,
Where I do know
Infinity to dwell.
And these mine eyes shall see
All times, how they
Are lost i' th' sea
Of vast eternity:
Where never moon shall sway
The stars; but she,
And night, shall be
Drown'd in one endless day.
There is certainly a lot of commonality in these poems, but Herrick likens the endless flow of time to a huge ocean.
The first stanza is a kind of valedictory statement: Herrick bids goodbye to his accumulated years and their associated infirmities, leaving them for the Infinite. Having arrived there in the second stanza, his soul sees the vast sweep of time as he understands it lost in the swell of the ocean of ages. In the third stanza, we see that the moon and stars are concealed by the light of an eternal day (most likely an allusion to the light of God).