Francis Quarles

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Francis Quarles

Francis Quarles (born May 8, 1592 in Romford , England , † September 8, 1644 in London ) was an English poet and emblematicist .

Life

Quarles was born on May 8, 1592, as one of eight children to his parents, James Quarles and Joan, née Dalton, in Romford (now the London Borough of Havering ) in Essex . Robert, his eldest brother, was knighted by Jacob I.

Since 1608 Francis Quarles studied at Christ's College at the University in Cambridge .

In 1618 he married Ursula Woodgate. He had eighteen children with her. Her son John Quarles (1624-1665) was also a writer.



Delight In God Only (joy only in God)

I love the earth - creature she is my Maker's,
She is my mother for she gave me birth.
She is my tender nurse - she gives me food.
But what is a creature, Lord, compared with Thee?
Or what is my mother or my nurse to me?

I love the air - her dainty sweets refresh
My drooping soul and to new sweets invite me.
But what is the air or all the sweets that she
Can bless my soul withal, compared to Thee?

I love the sea - she is my fellow-creature,
My careful purveyor - she provides me store.
She walls me round, she makes my diet greater,
She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore.
But, Lord of oceans, when compared with Thee,
What is the ocean or her wealth to me?

To heaven's high city I direct my journey,
Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye.
Mine eye, by contemplation's great attorney,
Transcends the crystal pavement of the sky.
But what is heaven, great God, compared to Thee?
Without Thy presence - heaven is no heaven to me.

Without Thy presence - the earth gives no reflection.
Without Thy presence - the sea affords no treasure.
Without Thy presence - the air is a rank infection.
Without Thy presence - the heaven is itself no pleasure.
If not possessed, if not enjoyed in Thee,
What is earth or sea or air or heaven to me?

Without Thy presence - wealth is bags of cares,
Wisdom - but folly, joy - disquiet, sadness.
Friendship is treason and delights are snares,
pleasures - but pain and mirth - pleasing madness.
Without Thee, Lord, things be not what they be,
Nor have their being when compared with Thee.

In having all things and not Thee - what have I?
Not having Thee - what have my labor got?
Let me enjoy but Thee - what further crave I?
And having Thee alone - what have I not?
I wish nor sea, nor land, nor would I be
Possessed of heaven, [if] heaven [is] unpossessed of Thee!

(From the poem "Delight In God Only" ( 'Joy only in God' ) by Francis Quarles)

Works

Original editions (selection)

  • A Feast for Wormes. Set forth in a Poeme of the History of Jonah (1620)
  • Job Militant, with Meditations Divine and Moral (1624)
  • Sions Elegies, wept by Jeremie the Prophet
  • Sions Sonets sung by Solomon the King
  • The Historic of Samson (1631)
  • Alphabet of Elegies upon ... Dr Aylmer (1625)
  • Argalus and Parthenia (1629)
  • Divine Fancies digested into Epigrams, Meditations and Observations (1632)
  • Alphabet of Elegies as Divine Poems (1633)
  • Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man (1638)
  • Memorials Upon the Death of Sir Robert Quarles, Knight (1639); in honor of his brother
  • Enchyridion, containing Institutions Divine and Moral (1640–41)
  • Observations concerning Princes and States upon Peace and Warre (1642)
  • The Loyal Convert , The Whipper Whipt , and The New Distemper (1644)

Individual references, source

  1. ↑ The Complete Works in Prose and Verse Of Francis Quarles (1881), p. 93.
personal data
SURNAME Quarles, Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1592
PLACE OF BIRTH Romford
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1644
Place of death London