At school between 1963 and 1970 I heard a reading from the Bible five days a week in school assembly. Now I rarely hear readings from the Bible, only at weddings and funerals, but I hear phrases from the Bible every day in ordinary speech. There are many Bibles, each of them a political as well as religious statement, but for me there is only one Bible, the King James Version, which has been called the greatest piece of prose in English.

But that version of the Bible is also filled with marvellous poetry, but in case we stumble into a pointless argument on what is prose and what is poetry, let me quote Shelley: “The distinction between poets and prose writers is a vulgar error.”

I was inspired to gather these three poems by reading in a book the first from The Song of Solomon. This is one extract from the long poem but very beautiful. How many poems speak of rising and coming and going away? There’s room for an anthology there. I think at once of the Isle of Innisfree. Reading this poem inspired me to start reading Luke’s gospel, which some have said is the best of the four gospels. (There’s another pointless argument.) I read a chapter every morning and am greatly enjoying it.

When I look back on all those years of Bible readings it is The Lilies of the Field that come first to my mind. I’m not sure why. (White lilies feature prominently in Renaissance paintings of the Annunciation, symbolising Mary’spuirity.)

Ecclesiastes is perhaps the book of the Bible most suited to my temperament, and I heard Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity read at a funeral. I’d be happy for it to be read at my funeral. I like the contrast between the fleetingness of man and the permanence of nature: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” Similarly in The Lilies of the Field nature triumphs over man.

From The Song of Solomon

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

The Lilies of the Field

And why take ye thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;

they toil not, neither do they spin:

And yet I say unto you,

That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.