Eden

A learned and a happy ignorance 
Divided me 
From all the vanity, 
From all the sloth, care, pain, and sorrow that advance 
The madness and the misery Of men. 
No error, no distraction I 
Saw soil the earth, or overcloud the sky.

I knew not that there was a serpent’s sting.
Whose poison shed 
On men, did overspread 
The world; nor did I dream of such a thing 
As sin, in which mankind lay dead. 
They all were brisk and living wights to me, 
Yea, pure and full of immortality. 

Joy, pleasure, beauty, kindness, glory, love, 
Sleep, day, life, light,
Peace, melody, my sight, 
My ears and heart did fill and freely move. 
All that I saw did me delight. 
The Universe was then a world of treasure, 
To me an universal world of pleasure.

Unwelcome penitence was then unknown, 
Vain costly toys,
Swearing and roaring boys,
Shops, markets, taverns, coaches, were unshown;
So all things were that drown’d my joys:
No thorns chok’d up my path, nor hid the face
Of bliss and beauty, nor eclips’d the place.

Only what Adam in his first estate,
Did I behold;
Hard silver and dry gold
As yet lay under ground; my blessed fate
Was more acquainted with the old
And innocent delights which he did see
In his original simplicity. 

Those things which first his Eden did adorn, 
My infancy
Did crown. Simplicity 
Was my protection when I first was born. 
Mine eyes those treasures first did see 
Which God first made. The first effects of love 
My first enjoyments upon earth did prove;

And were so great, and so divine, so pure; 
So fair and sweet,
So true; when I did meet
Them here at first, they did my soul allure,
And drew away my infant feet
Quite from the works of men; that I might see
The glorious wonders of the Deity.

--Thomas Traherne (1636-1674), English priest, poet, theologian


Scriptural reference: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Lent 1A