Poems of Keble
Woodhouse's assessment that the religious content of Keble's poems has greater merit than their literary component would therefore seem to have come nearer the mark than Cardinal Newman's eulogy in which he pays homage to both the religious and the poetic aspect in these words:
It is not necessary . . . and scarcely becoming, to praise a
book which has already become one of the classics of the
language. When the general tone of religoius literature was
so nerveless and impotent, as it was at that time, Keble
struck an original note and woke up in the hearts of
thousands a new music, the music of a school, long unknown
in England. Nor can I pretend to analyze, in my own
instance, the effect of religious teaching so deep, so pure,
so beautiful.
This assessment is self-contradictory, since in the same breath Newman lauds Keble's poetry as "original" and "a new music", before stating that it hails back to "the music of a school, long unknown in England".
What he is clearly endeavouring to put across is not so much that Keble is an innovator in poetic device but that his employment of the poetic devices of a former age - the Middle Ages - which serves to rekindle the flame of religious fervour in the hearts of his readers, is new to the readers of his own period.
Newman's appreciation of Keble's work appears to be based primarily on its religious aspect and secondarily on its poetic aspect, although it is clear that he fully approves of both these features.
However, reading the work in retrospect, Keble's poetry with its Victorian officialese appears curiously dated, in contrast with much earlier works in praise of the Blessed Virgin.
Dichotomy
This dichotomy is a repetition of what is found in mediæval Marian poetry, much of which appears to constitute the poet's endeavour to transmit a message of spiritual fervour rather than to gain a lasting name in the saga of English poetry.
This message is further confirmed by the anonymity of much of the work concerned.
We have seen how in the fourteenth century Friar William Herebert (one of a few poets of the era whose name does happen to have come down to us although very little else is known about him) employed his poetic gifts in the service of his religious beliefs with his translations of Latin church documents into English (Brown 1924:15-18).
In the same way Keble in the nineteenth century utilised his poetic talent to teach the precepts of Christianity to the citizens of the more doctrinally developed, literate and cultured nineteenth century in which he preached.
That both men were able to translate their religious insight into proficient poetry appears to have been merely an additional fortuitous circumstance.
Hyperdulia
Admirers of hyperdulia in poetry own a debt of gratitude to Keble - both for resuscitating the poetic genre and for rendering it acceptable among his Anglican followers, since this enabled celebrated non-Catholic poets of the era to add to its dimensions and, in conjunction with those writers of Marian praise verse who were theologians first and poets second, to build up an impressive corpus of Marian poetry for the nineteenth century.
Their number variously includes recognised poets of the calibre of the Anglicans Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his sister Christina and the Catholics Francis Thompson and Gerard Manley Hopkins, while also admitting into its ranks theologians such as John Henry Newman who was more renowned for his prose writing - notably his "Apologia pro Vita Sua", one of the most renowned autobiographies ever written in English - than for his poetry.
Cardinal John Henry Newman
Newman was the second member of the triumvirate responsible for the launching of the Oxford Movement, which culminated in his conversion to Catholicism in 1945.
According to Graef (1965:105), though Newman had a great appreciation of the Blessed Virgin's transcendent purity, he initially regarded her public veneration s incompatible with the worship of God. When at last he did come to accept hyperdulia as valid, he based his doctrine in part on the Church Fathers' view of Mary as the New Eve.
One of his admirers was the poet Christina Rossetti, who addressed him as "weary Champion of the Cross" (Rossetti 1911:280).
Forced to defend his vision of Mariology against a printed attack upon him by the Rev E B Pusey, the third founder of the Oxford Movement, he wrote as follows concerning the practice (Graef 1965:114) :
. . . He (Christ) alone has an entrance into our soul, reads our
secret thoughts, speaks to our heart, applies to us
spiritual pardon and strength . . . On him we solely depend.
He alone is our inward life . . . Mary is only our mother by
divine appointment, given us from the cross . . . It is her
prayers that avail, and her prayers are effectual by the
fiat of him who is our all in all . . . Our Lord cannot pray
for us, as a creature prays, as Mary prays . . . To her
belongs, as being a creature, a natural claim on our
sympathy and familiarity, in that she is nothing else than
our fellos . . . We look to her without any fear, any
remorse, any consciousness that she is able to read us,
judge us, punish us.
It is with the background knowledge of Newman's long and arduous search for guidance before he was able to accept hyperdulia as valid for himself that we read and savour the exultant simplicity of his The Queen of Seasons (A Song for an Inclement May), which in its spontaneity and joyousness is more reminiscent of the mediæval paradigm than is the work of more accomplished nineteenth-century Marian poets such as Thompson and Rossetti - with the notable exception of Gerald Manley Hopkins, to whose outstanding contribution to the genre of Marian poetry further reference will be made.
THE QUEEN OF SEASONS (A Song for an Inclement May)
All is divine
which the Highest has made
Thro' the days that He wrought,
till the day when He stayed;
Above and below,
within and around,
From the centre of space,
to its uttermost bound.
In beauty surpassing
the Universe smiled, 10
On the morn of its birth,
like an innocent child.
or like the rich bloom
of some gorgeous flower;
and the Father rejoiced
in the work of his power.
Yet worlds brighter still,
and a brighter than those,
And a brighter again,
He had made, had He chose; 20
And you never could name
that conceivable best,
to exhaust the resources
the Maker possessed.
But I know of one work
of His Infinite Hand
Which special and singular
ever must stand;
So perfect, so pure,
and of gifts such a store, 30
That even Omnipotence
cannot do more.
The freshness of May
and the sweetnes of June,
And the fire of July
in its passionate noon,
Munificent August,
September serene,
are together no match
for my glorious Queen. 40
O Mary all months
and all days are thine own,
In thee lasts their joyousness
when they are gone;
and we give to thee May,
not because it is best,
But because it comes first,
and is pledge of the rest.
This Newman poem darts with the simplicity and lightness of a butterfly above and below,/ within and around,/ from the centre of space,/ to its uttermost bound [5-8], paying no heed to Victorian formality.
Newman speaks of his Eternal Father's matchless power, saying: Yet worlds better still/ and a better than those/ and a brighter again/ he had made had he chose [17-19].
The poet goes on to say that in one of God's creations, to wit the Blessed Virgin Mary, no room for improvement has been left, since she is so special and singular [27] . . . perfect and pure [29] that the Almighty,Who - says Newman - in Mary created perfection, is unable to improve on her since He will not go against Himself.
The two alliterations seen here are interesting in their pyramid structure of syllables: two, three, two and one, which could be seen as denoting first God and Mary, then the Blessed Trinity, God and Mary again and concluding with the unity of God and Mary.
The combined beauty contained in the freshness of May [33], sweetness of June [34], fire of July [35], munificent August [37] and September serene [38] evokes both vigour and serenity; two qualities the poet discerns in the Blessed Virgin.
Dr Luky Whittle
Image by Rev Catherine
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