“I am a little world made cunningly”

John Donne

The other day it was raining in Shrewsbury, and I as I approached my bedroom window my eye was caught by something extraordinary.

Not by the view over the houses on the other side of the street towards the trees of the nearby nature reserve of Rea Brook, not by the dismal grey skies, but by the tiny water droplets clinging to the window pane.

Each was “a little world made cunningly“.

This wonderful phrase comes from a poem by John Donne which begins like this:

I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements and an angelic sprite

John Donne, ‘Holy Sonnets’

John Donne saw in himself “a little world”, a worthy, valuable existence, an existence with the potential for good. He saw in himself “sprite” (not the fizzy drink!) – we would say “spirit” today. It is true that he also saw in himself conflict, and if you are interested in this, you can read the whole poem here.

In each raindrop, I saw the same image of the road reflected, each time in a slightly different way. It was like an infinity of different perspectives that infinitely expanded the view from my own eyes.

A day that had appeared so grey and empty of interest suddenly seized me with interest. I lived in a “world made cunningly“.

Wouldn’t life be good if we could adopt this vision of John Donne’s more frequently, and see “a little world made cunningly” in everyone we meet and in everything we see?