Poem for June: extract from 'Nosce te ipsum' by John Davies, 1599

From 'Nosce te ipsum'

    by John Davies, 1599

          [...]

She (affliction) within lists my ranging mind hath brought,

That now beyond myself I list not go;

Myself am center of my circling thought,

Only myself I study, learn, and know.

I know my body's of so frail a kind

As force without, fevers within, can kill;

I know the heavenly nature of my nind,

But 'tis corrupted both in wit and will;

I know my soul hath power to know all things,

Yet is she blind and ignorant of all;

I know I am one of nature's little kings,

Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.

I know my life's a pain and but a span,

I know my sense is mocked with everything;

And to conclude, I know myself a man,

Which is a proud and yet a wretched thing. (ll. 156-180)

          [...]

That Power which gave me eyes the World to view

to see my self infused an inward light,

whereby my soul, as by a mirror true,

of her own form may take a perfect sight,

but as the sharpest eye discerneth nought,

except the sun-beams in the air doe shine:

so the best soul with her reflecting thought,

sees not her self without some light divine.

O Light which mak´st the light, which makes the day!

Which set´st the eye without, and mind within;

Lighten my spirit with one clear heavenly ray,

which now to view it self doth first begin. (ll. 193-204)

        [...]

How the soul is united with the body

Then dwels shee not therein as in a tent,  
Nor as a pilot in his ship doth sit \ 
Nor as the spider in his web is pent ; 
Nor as the waxe retaines the print in it ; 

Nor as a vessell water doth containe ; 
Nor as one liquor in another shed ; 
Nor as the heat doth in the fire remaine ; 
Nor as a voice throughout the ayre is spread : 

But as the faire and cheerfull Morning light, 
Doth here and there her siluer beames impart, 
And in an instant doth herselfe vnite 
To the transparent ayre, in all, and part : 

Still resting whole, when blowes th' ayre diuide ; 
Abiding pure, when th' ayre is most corrupted ; 
Throughout the ayre, her beams dispersing wide, 
And when the ayre is tost, not interrupted : 

So doth the piercing Soule the body fill, 
Being all in all, and all in part diffus'd ; 
Indiuisible, incorruptible and still, 
Not forc't, encountred, troubled or confus'd. 

And as the sunne aboue, the light doth bring, 
Though we behold it in the ayre below ; 
So from th' Eternall Light the Soule doth spring, 
Though in the body she her powers doe show. (ll. 897-924)