Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — Plato — John Shaqi
Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Plato · en
“Ne from thenceforth doth any fleshly sense,
Or idle thought of earthly things remaine,
But all that earst seemd sweet, seemes now offense,
And all that pleased earst, now seemes to paine,
Their joy, their comfort, their desire, their gaine,
Is fixed all on that which now they see,
All other sights but fayned shadowes bee.
“And that faire lampe, which useth to enflame
The hearts of men with selfe consuming fyre,
Thenceforth seemes fowle, and full of sinfull blame;
And all that pompe, to which proud minds aspyre
By name of honor, and so much desyre,
Seemes to them basenesse, and all riches drosse,
And all mirth sadnesse, and all lucre losse.
“So full their eyes are of that glorious sight,
And senses fraught with such satietie,
That in nought else on earth they can delight,
But in th’ aspect of that felicitie,
Which they have written in their inward ey;
On which they feed, and in their fastened mynd
All happie joy and full contentment fynd.”
(ll. 270–290.)
According to Spenser, then, heavenly love is the love felt in the soul
when the sight of wisdom in her beauty dawns upon the inner vision. It
is a love gained through speculation; and though the object is conceived
of as yonder in heaven, it is still the beauty which is seen here in the
mind. (l. 17.) Instead of the poetical device of the Mount of Heavenly
Contemplation used in the “Faerie Queene” to signify the refinement of
the spiritual vision necessary to the sight of this heavenly wisdom,
Spenser has been able to explain in detail the way along which the soul
must travel to gain its goal. It is the dialectic of the “Symposium”
(211), the progress through ever ascending gradations of beauty up to
the first absolute beauty changed only in the externals as required by
the Christian conception of the heavenly hierarchy. But throughout the
long series of upward stages through which his mind passes, one may feel
the quickening of his spirit at the thought of the highest beauty, in
which lies the unity of the poem. In the contemplation of this heavenly
beauty the poem begins and ends.
“Rapt with the rage of mine own ravisht thought,
Through contemplation of those goodly sights,
And glorious images in heaven wrought,
Whose wondrous beauty breathing sweet delights,
Do kindle love in high conceipted sprights:
I faine to tell the things that I behold,
But feele my wits to faile, and tongue to fold.”
(ll. 4–10.)