A Green Thought: Jordans Quaker Burial Ground

Andrew Marvell's poem, The Garden, came to my mind while walking today in the Quaker Burial Ground at Jordans Meeting House. Marvell writes about 'annihilating all that's made/To a green thought in a green shade', referring to the sense of peace and transcendence that he finds in the beauty of a garden.

I particularly like the way the headstones are arranged, in a circular pattern with a space at the centre, as if they are all present at their own Meeting for Worship.

Here at the Fountains sliding foot,
Or at some Fruit-trees mossy root,
Casting the Bodies Vest aside,
My Soul into the boughs does glide;
There like a Bird it sits, and sings,
Then whets, and combs its silver Wings;
And, till prepar'd for longer flight,
Waves in its Plumes the various Light.
Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678), The Garden