DURING THE COURSE OF THE BLOG POSTS WE HAVE TRACED THE COURSE OF ENGLISH MARIAN POETRY FROM ITS ANGLO-SAXON BEGINNINGS UNTIL THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
A perusal of Anglo-Saxon Marian poetry showed a marked similarity to the majestic Latin and Greek panegyrics found in writings dating back to the Early Church.
Cynewulf, who was the first English poet to sign his work, albeit with a Runic signature, sang the Blessed Virgin's praises in strains which harked back to the Latin origins of which much of his work was a translation.
The Marian poetry of the era justifies the assumption that the English Christians of the first millennium regarded their new religion with some remnant of their pagan fears: that they experienced God more as a remote, majestic King rather than as a Redeemer and Father Figure, and that they likewise phrased their panegyrics to the Blessed Virgin with extreme courtesy and subservience.
Judging by the changed tenor of the mediæval lyric as compared with the lofty Anglo-Saxon panegyrics in praise of God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this situation appears to have altered considerably as the centuries passed.
From the middle of the twelfth century when the mediæval lyric made its first appearance with St Godric's A Cry to Mary, the English poet writing in praise of Mary appears to be very confident of her personal partiality towards him and of her powerful protection of him - due, he believes, to the magnitude of her mediating powers with the Almighty.
Hundreds of lyrics from the era, still extant today, bear witness to the tranquil security the Christian of the Middle Ages felt with regard to the Blessed Virgin.
He saw her as his haven of refuge, his Mother who would open her arms to him and wrap him in her cloak, not only to provide security from the snares of the devil but also to stay God's Hand from striking him with just punishment for his sins.
This the mediæval Christian felt he fully deserved, since he subjected himself to stringent self-analysis and harboured no illusions about his virtue.
It is an interesting phenomenon that few mediæval poets signed their poetry. This might indicate that the majority of the lyric writers were clerics who traditionally forebore from broadcasting their identity and furthermore that the lyrics were written less in the pursuit of art than as a way of educating the masses in their devotional practices.
What emerged strongly in later years is the fact that humankind appears to have a great need of a woman figure to venerate.
Richard Crashaw and John Donne contributed to the dormant Marian poem genre in the seventeenth century, making it come alive before it again came to a halt in the eighteenth century.
If Bennett was correct in describing the Middle Ages as 'one of the greatest revolutions in feelings Europe has witnessed', the nineteenth-century revival, though less spectacular and widespread, is similarly striking.
In the latter case, the message of a deepening in spirituality was highlighted by such religious leaders as Pusey, Keble and Newman who in their turn passed it on to other priests, including Hopkins, and members of the community in sermons and poetry.
The latter subsequently immortalised the message of the need for a renewal of spirituality, which included the reinstatement of hyperdulia, in their own poetry.
It appears that a veneration of Mary draws the Christian closer to God rather than the reverse.
The fact that the poet is ever in search of a model woman figure would appear to demonstrate a natural inclination in humankind to venerate the Mother of God.
The massive corpus of English poetry in praise of the Blessed Virgin reveals that no other woman has inspired to great a following among praise poets writing in English and that hyperdulia has been a prominent part of the religious customs of the English Christian throughout the years since English poets first put quill to parchment.
England was known as Mary's Dowry and to this day the pilgrims at the Shrine of Walsinghum still sing:
Mary of Walsinghma, Mother of Jesus,
Pray for thy Dowry, the land that we love
England has need of thy powerful protection
Pour on thy children thy gifts from above
[1-4]
Countless the pilgrims whose footsteps have echoed
Down through the year along Walsingham's Way
Countless the prayers that thy children have offered;
Mary of Walsingham, hear us, we pray
[9-12]
Like this hymn, each of the poems and extracts quoted in the blog posts in its own unique way appears to demonstrate that those poets who have written praise verse in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the benefit of humankind, in their heart of hearts retain a sense of nostalgia for all that was clean and innocent in their youth.
That this childlike human innocence in all its pristine glory is embodied in the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is my own submission.
Dr Luky Whittle
Ave Maria
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