James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 19

19. 

Περισκοπεῖν ἄστρων δρόμους ὥσπερ συμπεριθέοντα καὶ τὰς τῶν στοιχείων εἰς ἄλληλα μεταβολὰς συνεχῶς ἐννοεῖν: ἀποκαθαίρουσι γὰρ αἱ τούτων φαντασίαι τὸν ῥύπον τοῦ χαμαὶ βίου. 

Look all around on the courses of the stars, as if running around their races with them; and give mind unceasingly to the mutations of the elements with one another. For the impressions of these things cleanse away the sordidness of the earthly life. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.47 

19. 

Confirm thyself in meditation oft 

O’ the elements—as fire, and how it burns, 

And water the extinguisher, and soft 

Billow of air that to a tempest turns. 

Reckon their casual conflicts, when they rage 

In civil strife, or banded ’gainst the earth 

In ireful havoc, but soon their wrath assuage 

To bake the meats and green the plain for mirth. 

Then up, beyond these elements surmise, 

Pondering what may be the circling stars, 

Yet as if riding with them through the skies, 

Driving the coursers of those fiery cars. 

This fellow converse scours away the rust 

Gendered of earthy days mid noise and dust. 

IMAGE: Jan Bruegel the Elder, Abundance and the Four Elements (c. 1606)