Jean Moir
Poet’s Note: In 1662 the children “kept the meeting” while all the adults were in prison. The individuals in this poem are imagined.
Dimity fidgeted, Dimity squirmed,
Dimity sighed with unease.
The Elders frowned and signalled her,
She should not break the peace.
We children find it hard indeed
To sit in calm and ease,
Yet sometimes like a sunshine shaft
We felt deep Quaker peace.
A loud knocking. John Bold stood up,
And opened wide: “Friends, please,
Come ye all in, and sit ye down,
And taste our Quaker peace.”
“Oh no, John Bold, we come for thee,
To prison with all these
Who gather here to plot and plan
To break the Royal peace.”
“Well, friends, we’ll go along with thee,
And quickly – but please,
Spare ye the children, let them be,
And do not break their peace.”
And then young Timmy Bold came round:
“Friends, Meeting shall not cease.
Come children, meet on First Day next
And keep the Quaker peace.”
And so to Meeting House we came
And sat there at our ease.
Not quite so quiet as was wont,
But still a sense of peace.
But six weeks later came the knock:
“We come for all of these
Of twelve or over, save this young girl
To keep the babes at peace.”
And so I cared both night and day
Without a moment’s ease.
But to the meeting house we went
And kept a kind of peace.
Dimity fidgeted, Dimity squirmed,
Ridden with gaol disease
The Elders frowned and shook their heads
And held her in the peace.
A knock upon the prison door.
“The King grants you release.”
“We are all here, friend, but our child.
She found eternal peace”.
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Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 518 • June 2022
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW
Copyright 2022, Oxford Quakers