Sunday, January 02, 2011

Vicissitude

Book 6, like Book 5, begins with a dawn:

till Morn,
Wak't by the circling Hours, with rosie hand
Unbarr'd the gates of Light.

Verity notes "rosie hand" in Jonson's Masque of Oberon - a nice version of which can be found at the link.

It might reward patience to look at how this description of dawn in Heaven differs from the earthly in Book 5:

There is a Cave
Within the Mount of God, fast by his Throne, [ 5 ]
Where light and darkness in perpetual round
Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through Heav'n
Grateful vicissitude, like Day and Night;
Light issues forth, and at the other dore
Obsequious darkness enters, till her houre [ 10 ]
To veile the Heav'n, though darkness there might well
Seem twilight here; and now went forth the Morn
Such as in highest Heav'n, arrayd in Gold
Empyreal, from before her vanisht Night,
Shot through with orient Beams:

1 comment:

Alarik W. Skarstrom said...

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