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William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850) Poet and Anglican minister.

      Bowles was born in King’s Sutton into a line of clergymen. He took his degree from Trinity College, Oxford in 1792 and proceeded to a clerical career that would lead him to be appointed chaplain to the Prince Regent in 1818, and in 1828, canon of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. He began his career as a poet in 1789 after a failed romance. His poetry seems best remembered for being "pretty" (Gilfillan xviii) and influenced both Lord Byron, despite a public and fairly lengthy spat over the merits of Alexander Pope, and Coleridge, who wrote a sonnet in praise of Bowles’ works. Bowles divided his attention between antiquarian subjects and celebration of nature. In keeping with these interests, his poem "St. John in Patmos" details the history of the Revelation to the prophet as a historical person, a subject largely ignored by his contemporaries. While the meat of Bowles’ Revelation is borrowed directly from the Biblical text, he does spend some time tracing the historical Revelation to contemporary millenarian feeling, especially in his description of the progress of religion from pagan times, through early Christianity and the later break with Roman Catholicism in the Reformation.


"St. John in Patmos"

Part One

Bowles depicts the pathetic old St. John, exiled and dwelling in a cave, surrounded by thieves and murderers, and living the lonely life of the last living apostle. He is stunned from his daily routine of prayers for the island’s sinners by a vision of Christ. Soon, a voice beckons him to behold what will be hereafter--revealing the throne of Eternal Justice, the twenty four elders, and the Book with seven seals.

Part Two

A mysterious Stranger tells St. John of his journey from Antioch to Patmos. He tells how he was sent to reveal the things to come hereafter to give St. John hope, and relates the sad state to which the seven churches have fallen. After hearing of the late Paul’s evangelism abroad, St. John worries that none will be left to teach after he dies. Pedanius, an exile, tells his story tells his tragic tale: after rescuing a young widowed mother from the destruction of Jerusalem, they are married. Unable to find employment, the young man turns to thievery. After the death of her second child, the wife goes mad and the distraught Pedanius is caught and exiled. He repents and begs mercy from St. John.

Part Three

John and the Stranger retire to the cave. Another vision reveals the opening of the seven seals. Bowles’ footnotes attempt to correlate the different riders of the Apocalypse to Roman emperors, particularly Trajan and Severus.

Part Four

A Roman commander visits St. John and tells of Domitian’s death. St. John attempts to engage the soldier in debate about the glory of Christ the King in comparison with earthly emperors; the Roman ignores him. Back at the cave, another vision portrays the Fall of Babylon and the coming of the New Jerusalem.

Now a new heaven and new earth appear;

And, coming down from heaven, even as a bride

Adorned to meet her husband, John beheld

The City of the New Jerusalem,

Glittering beyond the clouds; and then he heard

A voice from a bright cloud, The Lord shall come

And dwell with men, and he shall be their God;

And God shall wipe from every eye the tear,

And death shall be no more!

John spread his hands,

And cried, with eyes upraised to heaven, Oh! stay,

Visions of bliss! I am bowed down with age,

Forlorn of earth, and I have tarried long

Alone and sad. Oh! come, Lord Jesus Christ!

A voice replied, Thou shalt be where he is!

Hark! ‘twas the billow beating on the rocks

Of melancholy Patmos, and John wept,

As, slowly fading, like a summer dream,

He saw the towers, and gates, and palaces,

Of New Jerusalem fade in the clouds

Of eve, which shot its gleaming pinnacles

Aloft in the pale sky, and flushed the track

Of the sun’s westering orb with crimson light.

(244-266)

St. John is left to try to prove the existence of God, the answer to which he finds in Nature:

Is there a God?

Yes! Nature cries aloud, There is a God,

Visible in his works, and infinite

In power! There is a God, and he is just!

There is a God, and he is merciful!

Yet might we rather say, there is no God,

Than think, that to a being such as man

No revelation of bright hope was given:

That man, created in God’s image, placed

Amid this vast and unknown universe,

To sojourn upon earth a few brief years

Of feverish life, should look, for the last time,

Hopeless, upon the setting sun, and die.

Oh! better be the worm that feeds on him.

(339-352)

Finding the mysterious stranger has vanished, St. John prepares to sleep, but forgets to pray. He is plagued by Apollyon and is unable to sleep until he prays for help. After his prayers, voices soothe him to sleep.

Part Five

St. John and the Stranger climb to the top of a mountain. St. John recalls the vision of Christ’s Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. They see a ship sailing towards Patmos. The Stranger reveals the future of the Christian religion as it relates to Rome:

It is the imperial Mistress of the World,

Rome--Rome--now pagan; but a power unknown

Shall rise, and, throned on those seven hills--

When Caesars moulder with their palaces,

Shall hold dominion o’er the prostrate world,

Not by their glittering legions, but the power

Of cowled Superstition, that shall keep

Kingdoms and kings in thrall; till, with a shout,

A brighter angel, from the heaven of heavens,

As ampler knowledge shoots her glorious beams,

Shall open the Lamb’s book again, and night,

Beckoning her dismal shadows, and dark birds,

Fly hooting from the dayspring of the dawn.

Burns not thy heart to think upon those days!

But long and dire shall be the tale of blood;

Let it be hid forever!

(191-206)

In a footnote, Bowles explains that the "dayspring of the dawn" is "The dawn of knowledge and the Reformation; ignorance only being the parent of superstition."

Part Six

A young Grecian girl tells of her life of pleasure and begs for St. John to restore youth to her libertine lover. St. John has a vision of the Last Judgment. The mysterious Stranger departs, and the ship arrives to take St. John back to Ephesus.

Apocalyptic Horses

In this final section, Bowles takes historical information from Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and attempts to reveal the identity of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. According to Bowles, the Black Horse represents the reign of Severus, The Red Horse the reign of Trajan, the pale horse the time of pestilence under Galliennus, and the White Horse the spread of the Gospel.

Bibliography

Bowles, William Lisle. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles. Edited by the Reverend George Gilfillan. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1855.