Poetry · Chapter
The Clock of the Universe explained
This poem personifies the universe as a grand, aeonian clock, with a pendulum swinging between hope and fear, blessing and ban.
What happens
This poem personifies the universe as a grand, aeonian clock, with a pendulum swinging between hope and fear, blessing and ban. Two hands, like human hands in prayer, move across a sapphire ocean-face, while a golden cock stands ready to crow at the hour of ultimate revelation. A polar bear and a sea-serpent symbolize cosmic forces. The poem culminates in a longing for the clock to fall and for children to run up the stair to clasp the Father's knees, expressing a yearning for divine reunion and the end of time.
Themes in this chapter
Longing for Immortality
The poem's central yearning for the end of time and reunion with the Father expresses a deep desire for eternal, timeless existence.
Divine Fatherhood
God is repeatedly addressed as 'Father' and 'Lord of life', and the climax envisions children running to clasp the Father's knees.
Suffering and Purification
The pendulum's tick and tack bring hope and fear, blessing and ban, reflecting the purifying struggle of human existence.
Characters to notice
- God
Addressed as 'Lord of life, and Father of boon' and 'our father, Allhearts’ All', the ultimate source of hope and the one who will end time.
- Unknown
The voice of the poem, observing the cosmic clock and expressing longing for divine reunion.
- O Serpent
The great sea-serpent lying coiled beneath, representing a dormant cosmic force that could disrupt time.
- The Owl
Not directly mentioned, but the cock is a bird; no owl appears in this excerpt.
Key passages
“Each tick is a hope, each tack is a fear, Each tick is a Where , each tack a Not here , Each tick is a kiss, each tack is a blow, Each tick says “Why,” each tack “I don’t know.””
Every moment brings alternating hope and fear, presence and absence, love and pain, certainty and doubt.
The pendulum's swing symbolizes the dual nature of human experience.
“Two hands, together joined in prayer, With a roll and a volley of spheric thunder; Two hands, in hope spread half asunder, An empty gulf of longing embrace; Two hands, wide apart as they can fare In a fear still coasting not touching Despair, But turning again, ever round to prayer”
The clock's hands move like human hands in prayer, sometimes clasped, sometimes open in longing, always returning to a posture of supplication.
The hands represent humanity's perpetual oscillation between hope and despair, always returning to prayer.
“And up the stair will run as they please The children to clasp the Father’s knees.”
When time ends, all people will freely ascend to embrace God.
The final image of children running to the Father captures the poem's ultimate hope for reunion and peace.