The Circle [4]

Edited by Elizabeth Scott-Baumann

In the first lines of the Bible, God creates light:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1.1-5

Genesis describes light being created but in Pulter’s poem, it is instead “extracted”, a chemical verb, often used for distillation, and it is characteristic for Pulter to bring technical and alchemical language to devotional poetry (see also, for instance, The Hope65 and The Revolution16). The gender dynamic in the personifications of this poem are interesting, as divine power moves from the male God of the opening to the “virgin womb” of Astrea. In the opening of Paradise Lost, also meditating on these lines from Genesis, Milton imagines the Holy Spirit both “brooding” (like a female bird) and impregnating (as a male):

And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad’st it pregnant.

Paradise Lost, ll. 17-22.

As well as chemical process, Pulter combines Biblical and Roman narratives about light. Her word “lapsèd” hinges between these two spheres, referring to mankind’s wickedness after the Golden Age of Roman myth and also etymologically suggesting the Fall from Eden in Genesis. In this, her fourth poem called ‘The Circle’, Pulter enacts the title; her poem’s opening and closing lines end with the same words, “life and love”.

Compare Editions

The eternal Spirit of life and love,
Descending from His throne above;
From nature’s mass extracted1
 Light,
Biding2
her3
 triumph over night.
Who, in her prime of youth and day,
Lovely Astrea4
 did display5
;
Who, conquering all the shades infernal,
Her virgin womb showed life eternal
To lapsèd6
 man, then flew above
To be involved7
 again in life and love.