Isaac of Stella (ca. 1100 – ca. 1170 CE) was born in England, and after studying in Paris, joined the Cistercian Order. In 1147 he became the abbot of the small monastery of Stella, near Poitiers. His writing combines Christian mysticism with Aristotelian and Neoplatonic thought.

Love incited by something external
Is like a small lamp
Whose flame is fed with oil,
Or like a stream fed by rains,
Where flows stop when the rains cease.
But love whose object is God
Is like a fountain gushing forth
From the earth.
Its flow never ceases,
For He Himself is the source of this love
And also its food,
Which never grows scarce.