on friday, sometime past 1pm, a group of css people were talking about some lines from one of Blake's poems, at our arts corner in the canteen. this reminded me of a reflection i had some time back.
the lines they were talking about were these:
To see a world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
it appears to me that i can read into these verses a description of what happens at Mass.
To see the world in a grain of sand --> to be able to see the Host containing something (someone) much larger than it actually is
And Heaven in a wild flower --> to see the Divine in the products of earth (Bread and Wine)
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand --> thats what happens when the Host is put onto your hand
And eternity in an hour --> Mass is about an hour long, and it is a re-presentation of the Sacrifice at Calvary. in that one hour (approximately) we are immersed in something that transcends the chronological confines of time.
of course, this is just my reading into it, and i am in no way asserting that Blake had these thoughts and intentions when he composed his poem.
Auguries of innocence is a rather long poem, though most people are only familiar with these first four verses. here is a link to the full poem by Blake:
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/368.htmlcheers,
Damien
