“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Context: And truly, I reiterate,.. nothing's small!
No lily-muffled hum of a summer-bee,
But finds some coupling with the spinning stars;
No pebble at your foot, but proves a sphere;
No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim:
And, — glancing on my own thin, veined wrist, —
In such a little tremour of the blood
The whole strong clamour of a vehement soul
Doth utter itself distinct. Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware
More and more, from the first similitude.
Bk. VII, l. 812-826.
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning 88
English poet, author 1806–1861Related quotes
Quoted in The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage (1916) by C. A. Wynschenk Dom, p. 6
Context: God being a common good, and His boundless love being common to all, He gives His grace... to all men, Pagan and Jew, good or evil... Thus God is a common light and a common splendour, enlightening heaven and earth, and every man, each according to his need and worth.
A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593), The First and Introductory Treatise
The Angel
Fairy Tales (1835)
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.20
“I’m taking off my shoes.’’
‘‘Fine. Shoes off.’’
‘‘And my pants.’’
‘‘Don’t push it, Claire.”
Source: Feast of Fools
Variant: A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
Source: The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II
Second Tablet to ‘Him Who Will Be Made Manifest’
