At the round earths imagin'd corners

Yesterday (Saturday) the English Chamber Choir were singing at a conference organised by the William Tyndale Society in Oxford. It was a lovely day and lounging round the quad at Hertford College, where the conference was taking place, was quite special.

One of the works we sang was a piece by Hubert Parry which is a setting of words by John Donne and which fits so very well with my pictures of the Radcliffe Camera, the circular building which is one of Oxford's most distinctive landmarks. The camera (the word means simply "room") was built 1737-1749 and is now used as a reading room.

Both Tyndale and Donne were at what is now Hertford College. Donne lived from 1572 to 1631 and a lot of his poetry is rather erotic! This (below) is not.

William Tyndale (c. 1494 – 1536) was a 16th-century Protestant reformer and scholar who translated the Bible into the Early Modern English of his day. Tyndale's was the first English translation to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the first to take advantage of the new medium of print, which allowed for its wide distribution. In 1535 Tyndale was arrested, tried for heresy and then garroted and burnt at the stake!!

They didn't mince about in those days.....Oh dear, that is a terrible pun!

John Donne

Holy Sonnet No.7

At the round earths imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, Angells, and arise, arise
From death, you numberlesse infinities
Of soules, and to your scattred bodies goe,
All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow,
All whom warre, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despaire, law, chance, hath slaine, and you whose eyes,
Shall behold God, and never tast deaths woe.
But let them sleepe, Lord, and mee mourne a space,
For, if above all these, my sinnes abound,
'Tis late to aske abundance of thy grace,
When wee are there; here on this lowly ground,
Teach mee how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon, with thy blood.