Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING ACCOUNT by JOHN BYROM

Poet Analysis

First Line: HOW FULL A PROOF OF HEAV'N'S ALL-PRESENT AID
Last Line: IT IS ALL MEANNESS, IF THE LOVE BE MEAN.
Subject(s): LOVE; MEDITATION;
HOW full a proof of heav'n's @3all-present@1 aid
Was good Armelle, a simple servant maid!
A poor French girl, by parentage and birth
Of low and mean condition upon earth;
By education ignorant indeed,
She, all her life, could neither write nor read.

But she had @3that@1 which all the force of art
Could neither give nor take away—a heart;
An honest, humble, well disposed will,
The true capacity for higher skill
Than what the world, with all its learned din,
Could teach—she learn'd her lesson from @3within@1;
Plain, single lesson of essential kind,
The love of God's pure presence in her mind.
Her artless, innocent, attentive thought
Was at the Source of all true knowledge taught:
@3There@1 she could read the characters impress'd
Upon the mind of ev'ry human breast;
The native laws prescrib'd to ev'ry soul;
And @3love@1, the one fulfiller of the whole.

This @3holy@1 love to know and practise well,
Became the sole endeavour of Armelle:
Of outward things the management and rule
She wisely took from this @3internal@1 school:
In ev'ry work well done by @3such@1 a hand,
The work was @3servile@1, but the thing was @3grand.@1
There was a dignity in all she did,
Tho' from the world by meaner labours hid;
If mean @3below@1, not so esteem'd @3above@1,
Where all the @3grand@1 of labour is the @3love:@1
In vain to boast magnificence of scene;
It is all @3meanness@1, if the @3love@1 be @3mean.@1



Home: PoetryExplorer.net