Mediaeval Poetry in Praise of the Blessed Virgin [Part Four] - Sunset on Calvary

MEDIAEVAL POETRY IN PRAISE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MAY [PART FOUR]

SUNSET ON CALVARY

A poem which is formally much simpler, illustrating that the mediaeval lyricist does not need to elaborate in order to get his point across, is Sunset on Calvary, a quatrain believed by Brown (1932:166) to have been written in the second half of the thirteenth century. The simplicity of this short poem contrasts with the Latin elaboration found in the macaronic poem.

     SUNSET ON CALVARY

     Nou goth sonne vnder wod                             sets behind the tree (s)
     me reweth, marie, þi faire Rode.                   I pity; thy fair face
     Nou goþ sonne vnder tre,                               sets behind the tree  
     me reweþ, marie, þi sone and þe.                  I pity; thy son and thee

Reweþ (2) calls up the Dutch words rouw [mourn] and berouw [contrition (for sins committed)], leaving scope for more than one connotation. It is a far more expressive word than the English "pity", while "rue" in English has taken on an almost threatening connotation, and "rueful" is often used in a half-humorous context. Rouw for its part has connotations of funerals and cemeteries, berouw of the Catholic confessional. The repetition of the word reweþ (2), therefore, denotes a groaning in spirit, not only for friends and loved ones lost, but also bemourning (be-rouw) the death of Christ in expiation of the sins of humankind, including those of the poet and his readership. It could also mean: "It pains me" which in Dutch would be: "het spijt mij."

The unsurpassable simplicity of this poem is counteracted by the burden of emotion it contains. Rode (2), translated by Brown as countenance, could be a pun on rode [red] and rood [cross]. Each line of this poem is described by Bennett (1982:32) as holding "in embryo seeds that will burgeon richly in devotional verse for four hundred  years and more".

Rogers   (1983:70 - 71), who states that interpreting a poem depends on setting up a reciprocal relation between mind and world, painstakingly explores the connections between the natural objects and the sorrow in Sunset on Calvary in the following detailed description:

     The lyric does not state the connections between the natural
     world and the emotion; but if the poem is to work at all,
     those connections must be made. The mental state, the
     sorrowing, is somehow triggered by the sight of the natural
     objects - sun and trees; but the natural objects themselves
     take on an objective colo(u)ring of sorrow because of the 
     mental state with which they are associated. The
     understanding of the poem hinges on the reader's ability to 
     see the mental state and the natural objects as different in
     their oneness. It is not that the two entities merge
     completely; rather, they are held apart forcibly by the
     syntax and the verse form so that their reciprocity may be 
     apprehended. The sun does not become the Son nor the tree
     the Tree, once and for all in a completed synthesis of mind
     and world. The mind of the work moves back and forth
     between the two poles of its own state and the natural 
     world: the sorrow of the imagined Crucifixion, and the
     presence of the perceived sunset.


Dr Luky Whittle