“Sure Man was born to meditate on things,  
And to contemplate the eternal springs  
Of God and Nature, glory, bliss, and pleasure;  
That life and love might be his Heavenly treasure;  
And therefore speechless made at first, that He
Might in himself profoundly busied be:”

Reflection is as natural to being human as it is to the surface of water. The image above is of Colemere, a tranquil “mere” (small lake) in North Shropshire, dating back to the Ice Age. As Thomas Traherne says: “Sure Man was born to meditate on things“.

He continues:

This, my dear friends, this was my blessed case;  
For nothing spoke to me but the fair face  
Of Heaven and Earth, before myself could speak...


Then did I dwell within a world of light,  
Distinct and separate from all men’s sight,  
Where I did feel strange thoughts, and such things see  
That were, or seemed, only revealed to me...


“D’ye ask me what? It was with clearer eyes  
To see all creatures full of Deities;
Especially one’s self: And to admire  
The satisfaction of all true desire:  
Twas to be pleased with all that God hath done;  
Twas to enjoy even all beneath the sun:  
Twas with a steady and immediate sense
To feel and measure all the excellence  
Of things... every stone, and every star a tongue,  
And every gale of wind a curious song..."

These lines are from his beautiful poem called “Dumbness” (in the sense of not being able to speak), and you can read the full poem here.

Ironically, Traherne is anything but “dumb” when he writes about his pre-language childhood world. It seems a heavenly state, where the whole world “spoke to me”.

When the world speaks to us in such beautiful ways, it is good, very good.

These reflections on Colemere did just that.

I hope that they, and Traherne’s poetry, speak to you.