Poetry Friday: Indwelling by T.E. Brown

Although Madeleine L’Engle was a fine poet, her works are most likely still protected by copyright. So instead of one of her poems, I give you a poem by Thomas Brown that formed a significant anchoring thematic element in the book A Ring of Endless Light.

If thou could’st empty all thyself of self
Like unto a shell dishabited
Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf
And say, ‘This is not dead,’
And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou art all replete with very thou
And has such shrewd activity
That when He comes He says, ‘This is enou
Unto itself–’twere better let it be.
It is so small and full, there is no room for me.”
–Thomas Brown

The poem was written, by the way, by Thomas Edward Brown, b. 1830, not by the Sir Thomas Browne, b. 1605, who wrote Religio Medici and Urn Burial.