John Bunyan*

John Bunyan (1628—1688) is an English writer and Puritan preacher who is the renowned author of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

At age sixteen he joined the Parliamentary Army during the early stages of the English Civil War, serving for three years. Years later he became involved with a nonconformist sect who met in Bedford, and he became a preacher. After the restoration of the monarchy he was arrested and spent twelve years in prison for refusing to abstain from preaching. During this time he wrote his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to his Poor Servant John Bunyan, which was published in 1666. This was also when he began work on The Pilgrim’s Progress.

In the second part of The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian is led by Mr. Greatheart through the Valley of Humilation, where he hears the following song being sung by a shepherd boy.

The Shepherd Boy

He that is down needs fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have,
Little be it or much:
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because Thou savest such.
Fullness to such a burden is
That go on pilgrimage:
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from age to age.

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about John Bunyan: first post.

The most recent post at Poems For Ephesians is also a poem by John Bunyan.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Cascade) ― a book of poems written from the point-of-view of angels. His books are available through Wipf & Stock.

Elizabeth Melville

Elizabeth Melville (c.1578―c.1640), also known as Lady Culross, is a Scottish poet. The first edition of her Ane Godlie Dreame appeared in 1603, making her the first known woman in Scotland to have her poetry published. Her father, Sir James Melville of Halhill, served in the courts of Mary Queen of Scots, and King James VI (who became England’s James I in 1603).

She described her 60-stanza, 480-line poem as an account of a dream she had had when in deep spiritual anguish. It has been suggested that John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was influenced by Ane Godlie Dreame.

Elizabeth Melville was active among those resisting English attempts to bring the Presbyterian Kirk under the authority and influence of the Church of England. She wrote the following sonnet for the Calvinist preacher John Welsh, when ― for holding a General Assembly at Aberdeen in July, 1605 ― he was imprisoned in Blackness Castle.

A Sonnet Sent to Blackness
To Mr. John Welsh by the Lady Culross

My Dear Brother with courage bear the cross.
---Joy shall be joined with all your sorrow here;
High is your Hope. Disdain this worldly dross:
---Anew shall you for this wished day appear.

Though it is dark, the sky cannot be clear.
---After the cloud, it shall be calm anon.
Wait on his will who with Blood hath bought you dear
---Extol his name though outward joys be gone.

Look to the Lord: you are not left alone.
---Since he is yours, oft pleasure can you take.
He is at hand and hears your every groan
---End out your fight and suffer for his sake.

---A sight most bright your soul shall shortly see
---When show of glore your rich reward shall be.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Cascade) ― a book of poems written from the point-of-view of angels. His books are available through Wipf & Stock.

Calvin Miller

Calvin Miller (1936—2012) is the author of more than 40 books including the popular The Singer Trilogy. The first book, The Singer, appeared in 1975 and sold more than a million copies. It is an allegory, behind a gossamer-thin veil, in the tradition of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Through the way Miller weaved his poetic spell, The Singer opened a generation of evangelicals to more artistic modes of expression.

Calvin Miller served as a Baptist pastor in Nebraska for thirty years, and later became a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and most-recently at Beeson Divinity School.

from The Singer

When he awoke, the song was there.

Its melody beckoned and begged him to sing it.

It hung upon the wind and settled in the meadows where he walked.

He knew its lovely words and could have sung it all, but feared to sing a song whose harmony was far too perfect for human ear to understand.

And still at midnight it stirred him to awareness, and with its haunting melody it drew him with a curious mystery to stand before an open window.

In rhapsody it played among the stars.

It rippled through Andromeda and deepened Vega’s hues.

It swirled in heavy strains from galaxy to galaxy and gave him back his very fingerprint.

“Sing the Song!” the heavens seemed to cry. “We never could have been without the melody that you alone can sing.”

Entry written by D.S. Martin. His latest poetry collection, Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis, is available from Wipf & Stock as is his earlier award-winning collection, Poiema.

William Blake*

William Blake (1759—1827) is one of the most influential poets of the English language. At the time of his death, however, he was little known as an artist, and even less known as a poet. Besides producing engravings for his own poetry, he also made illustrations for such works as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Milton's Paradise Lost, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the Book of Job, and Dante's Divine Comedy.

According to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Blake said "all he knew was in the Bible", which he called "the Great Code of Art." He was not a very orthodox thinker, preferring to write in figurative ways such "prophetic" books as The Four Zoas, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and Jerusalem. The following is from his Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

On Anothers Sorrow

Can I see anothers woe,
And not be in sorrow too.
Can I see anothers grief,
And not seek for kind relief.

Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrows share,
Can a father see his child,
Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd.

Can a mother sit and hear,
An infant groan an infant fear—
No no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

And can he who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small birds grief & care
Hear the woes that infants bear—

And not sit beside the nest
Pouring pity in their breast,
And not sit the cradle near
Weeping tear on infants tear.

And not sit both night & day,
Wiping all our tears away.
O! no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

He doth give his joy to all.
He becomes an infant small.
He becomes a man of woe
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not, thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy maker is not by.
Think not thou canst weep a tear,
And thy maker is not near.

O! he gives to us his joy,
That our grief he may destroy
Till our grief is fled & gone
He doth sit by us and moan

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about William Blake: first post, third post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. His new poetry collection, Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis, is available from Wipf & Stock as is his earlier award-winning collection, Poiema.

John Bunyan

John Bunyan (1628—1688) is best known as the author of the allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. (The first part was published in 1678, and the second in 1684.) It is probably the best known allegory ever written in any language. Bunyan was a tinker by trade — a mender of pots — which did not provide well for his family. During the English Civil War he served in the Parliamentary army.

He began writing The Pilgrim’s Progress when he was imprisoned for preaching without a licence. During the restoration of the monarchy nonconformist meetings had been prohibited, and people were required to attend their local Anglican congregation. He admitted at one trial, “If you release me today, I will preach tomorrow.”

Many idioms in English come from the book, such as “the Slough of Despond” and “Vanity Fair”. Rudyard Kipling called Bunyan “the father of the novel”, and C.S. Lewis followed in Bunyan’s footsteps by writing his own allegory The Pilgrim’s Regress.

The following is a poetic passage from the second part of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Oh, World Of Wonders

Oh, world of wonders! (I can say no less)
That I should be preserved in that distress
That I have met with here! Oh, blessed be
That hand that from it hath delivered me!
Dangers in darkness, devils, hell, and sin
Did compass me, while I this vale was in;
Yea, snares, and pits, and traps, and nets did lie
My path about, that worthless, silly I
Might have been catched, entangled, and cast down;
But, since I live, let Jesus wear the crown.

This is the first Kingdom Poets post about John Bunyan: second post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca