Observations placeholder
Aubrey de Vere - Sun god
Identifier
006004
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Aubrey Thomas de Vere (10 January 1814–20 January 1902) was an Irish poet. The characteristics of Aubrey de Vere's poetry are "high seriousness and a fine religious enthusiasm. His research in questions of faith led him to the Roman Catholic Church; and in many of his poems, notably in the volume of sonnets called St Peters Chains (1888), he made rich additions to devotional verse".
He was a disciple of Wordsworth, and he had an abiding affection for Greek poetry which was truly felt and understood. But perhaps he will be chiefly remembered for
"the impulse which he gave to the study of Celtic legend and Celtic literature. In this direction he has had many followers, who have sometimes assumed the appearance of pioneers; but after Matthew Arnold's fine lecture on Celtic Literature, nothing perhaps did more to help the Celtic revival than Aubrey de Vere's tender insight into the Irish character, and his stirring reproductions of the early Irish epic poetry".
I don't know what inspired him, other than the fact he appears to have had real belief in the existence of the spiritual world.
A description of the experience
Aubrey de Vere – The Sun God
I saw the Master of the Sun. He stood
High in his luminous car, himself more bright;
An Archer of immeasurable might
On his left shoulder hung his quivered load;
Spurned by his Steeds the eastern mountain glowed;
Forward his eager eye, and brow of light
He bent: and while both hands that arch embowed,
Shaft after shaft pursued the flying Night
No wings profaned that godlike form; around
His neck high held an ever moving crowd
Of locks hung glistening; while such perfect sound
Fell from his bowstring, that th'ethereal dome
Thrilled as a dewdrop; and each passing cloud
Expanded, whitening like the ocean foam