Surveying the cosmos
Continuing on our theme of 'hope' from last week, we give you a few stanzas from Constance Naden's visionary and uplifting poem 'The Astronomer' (published posthumously in 1891)
When the skies glitter, when the earth is cold, In some divine and voiceless hour, The heavens vanish, and mine eyes behold The elemental Power. Now has the breath of God my being thrilled; Within, around, His word I hear: For all the universe my heart is filled With love that casts out fear. In one deep gaze to concentrate the whole Of that which was, is now, shall be, To feel it like the thought of mine own soul, Such power is given to me. My sight, love−strengthened, Time and Space controls; No more are Force and Will at strife; Beyond the sun I pass; around me rolls Infinite−circled Life. This realm where he his destined orbit keeps, This world of planet−ruling spheres, Borne onward with its Pleiad−centre, sweeps Through unimagined years. In suns, that shining for some nobler race Their twin−born light commingled give, And through black depths of interstellar space A boundless life I live.
Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone (1888)
About the Author
Constance Naden (1858-1889) was a pioneer of literature and science whose poems are suffused with imagery and ideas from her studies of geology, botany, zoology, physics, and chemistry as a student at the Birmingham and Midland Institute and at Mason Science College. In addition to being much admired for her poetry, Naden was a talented painter. She died at the age of 31 from surgical infection.
You can read all of her poems here: http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/67/60.pdf
The Complete Poetical Works of Constance Naden
To read alongside…
Lord Byron’s 1821 epic play Cain offers a panoramic view of the Cosmos, seen through a proto-evolutionary lens. In the play, Lucifer takes Cain on a journey to show him “the history/Of past, and present, and of future worlds.”
Thomas Hardy's novel Two on a Tower (1882) explores the plight of two lovers in an astronomical context. Gazing at the canopy of stars above them, they experience a mixture of feelings--wonder at the vastness and beauty they see in the sky, and humility at how insignificant their everyday concerns seem by comparison. We also recommended it alongside the work of Leo Tolstoy in our recent newsletter ‘The Comet of Love.’
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