Poets and the Praise of Mary

The  Magnificat, Cynewulf and Godric
No other woman in history has inspired a proliferation of hymns of praise such as the vast mass of poetry dedicated to the Virgin Mary by successive generations of poets. This is a remarkable phenomenon, given the scant information available about this young Jewish woman of Nazareth, betrothed to a carpenter, who, while remaining a virgin, gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is regarded by the millions of Christians born during the centuries that have elapsed since His Birth, as the Son of God, the Messiah, whose arrival had for thousands of years been eagerly anticipated.

The texts pertaining to Mary in the New Testament depict her as a woman of few words, who, though she participated actively in her Son's Life from the instant of His Conception until He gave up His Spirit, nonetheless knew her role to be a supportive and sustaining one, rather than one of taking charge. No poet who recognises this distinction would give Mary more honour than is her due.

Mary from Nazareth delivered an impromptu oration of such confounding magnitude that it has irreversibly secured her position among the world's foremost women orators. The oration is known as the Magnificat, on account of the introductory line in the Latin translation: "Magnificat anima mea Dominum" [my soul glorifies the Lord]. In her recital, Mary predicts that her name will be on the lips of the people of every generation to come (Luke 1;48), as she proclaims:
...Because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid: for
   behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

English poetry abounds with confirmation of the fulfilment of these prophetic words of a hitherto undistinguished Jewish woman. So engrained is the praise of Mary in the ethos of early English Christianity that Cynewulf's poem Christ II, one of the earliest extant Anglo-Saxon poems, which dates back to approximately the ninth century AD, contains a passage in honour of the Virgin Mary, while the first known English mediaeval lyric is St. Godric's A Cry to Mary, composed about the mid-twelfth century.

*Photograph taken with permission by Rev. Catherine