Dialogue on the Threshold

Schwellendialog

19 July 2015

Occasionall Melancholie

And for her, some sicknesses, in the declination of her yeeres, had opened her to an overflowing of Melancholie; Not that she ever lay under that water, but yet, had sometimes, some high Tides of it; and, though this distemper would sometimes cast a cloud, and some halfe damps upon her naturall cheerfulnesse, and sociablenesse, and sometimes induce darke, and sad apprehensions . . . Occasionall Melancholy had taken some hold in her; Nevertheless, that never Ecclipst, never interrupted her cheerfull confidence, and assurance in God. 

John Donne, A Sermon of Commemoration of the Lady Danvers, 1 July 1627

16 July 2015

Hives in hell

His firm stanzas hang like hives in hell
Or what hell was, since now both heaven and hell
Are one, and here, O terra infidel.

Wallace Stevens, Esthétique du Mal (1944)