Saturday, June 19, 2010

Pain mirrored in the pain of others

And now he fancied he had the upper hand, it already seemed easier to be compassionate and sorry for her. For it is in the nature of man to hate his own pain mirrored in the pain of others.

Bernanos, The Star of Satan

Creaturely of necessity

He has no need of
the rubric's nudge: osculator altare in medio.
for what bodily act other
would serve here?
Creaturely of necessity
for we are creatures
Our own salvation
were it possible
could be no other than the rubric's osculator

David Jones, from Kensington Mass

Monday, June 14, 2010

our debt to Lionhood

Sunt Leones / Stevie Smith

The lions who ate the Christians on the sands of the arena
By indulging native appetites played what has now been seen a
Not entirely negligible part
In consolidating at the very start
The position of the Early Christian Church.
Initiatory rights are always bloody
And the lions, it appears
From contemporary art, made a study
Of dyeing Coliseum sands a ruddy
Liturgically sacrificial hue
And if the Christians felt a little blue –
Well people being eaten often do.
Theirs was the death, and theirs the crown undying,
A state of things which must be satisfying.
My point which up to this has been obscured
Is that it was the lions who procured
By chewing up blood gristle flesh and bone
The martyrdoms on which the church has grown.
I only write this poem because I thought it rather looked
As if the part the lions played was being overlooked.
By lions’ jaws great benefits and blessings were begotten
And so our debt to Lionhood must never be forgotten

Saturday, June 12, 2010

the proper pleasure of ritual

A celebrant approaching the altar, a princess led out by a king to dance a minuet, a general officer on a ceremonial parade, a major-domo preceding the boar's head at a Christmas feast -- all these wear unusual clothes and move with calculated dignity. This does not mean that they are vain, but that they are obedient; they are obeying the hoc age which presides over every solemnity. The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.


C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The essential content of pure lyricism.

The general meaning of the universe is revealed in the soul of the poet in a two-fold fashion: from its external side as the beauty of nature, and from the internal side as love, and namely in its most intensive and concentrated expression - as sexual love. These two themes: the eternal beauty of nature and the infinite power of love together make up the essential content of pure lyricism.

- Vladimir Solov'ev, 'O liricheskoj poezu'