Unlike the other nineteenth-century poets who wrote in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary mentioned thus far, Francis Thompson [1859-1907], who is probably best known for his Christ poem The Hound of Heaven, was an ardent admirer of seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry. 1
He suffered poverty and deprivation and was addicted to drugs.
His plight was recognized by the publisher-poet Wilfrid Meynell [1852-1948] and his wife the poetess/essayist Alice Meynell [1847-1922], who not only were the first publishers to publish Thompson's poetry but took the impoverished poet into their home where he remained under their care until his death and where he grew in poetic stature as his writing brought him wide acclaim.
Office of Our Lady
Thompson was familiar with the devotion known as 'The Office of Our Lady' and, of course, the Old Testament, including the Canticle of Canticles. 2
In the poem Assumpta Maria transcribed below, he refers to himself as a poor Thief of song [99], (a clear reference to the thief who made supplication while being crucified alongside Christ), while in an 1893 letter [Connolly 1979:477] 3 which accompanied certain poems including the one which follows, he wrote:
They (the sources) are almost entirely taken from the Office of the Assumption, some from the Canticle, a few images are from mythology. Some very beautiful images are from a hymn by St Nerses the Armenian, rendered in 'Carmina Mariana'.
You will perceive therefore the reason of the motto from Cowley: 'Thou needst not make new songs, but say the old.'
ASSUMPTA MARIA
Thou needs not make new songs, but say the old. -COWLEY
'Mortals, that behold a Woman
Rising 'twixt the Moon and Sun;
Who am I the heavens assume? an
All am I, and I am one.
'Multitudinous ascend I,
Dreadful as a battle arrayed,
For I bear you wither tend I;
Ye are I: be undismayed!
I, the Ark, that for the graven
Tables of the law was made; 10
Man's own heart was one; one, heaven; Anteros 4
Both within my womb were laid.
For there Anteros with Eros 5
Heaven with man, conjoinéd was
Twin-stone of the Law, Ischyros, 6
Agios Athanatos 7
'I, the flesh-girt Paradises
Gardenered by the Adam new,
Daintied o'er with dear devices
Which He loveth, for He grew. 20
I, the boundless strict Savannah 8
Which God's leaping feet go through;
I, the heaven whence the Manna,
Weary Israel, slid on you!
He the Anteros and Eros,
I the body, He the cross;
He upbeareth me, Ischyros,
Agios Athanatos!
'I am Daniel's mystic Mountain,
Whence the mighty stone was rolled; 30
I am the four Rivers' Fountain,
Watering Paradise of old;
Cloud down-raining the Just One am,
Danae of the Shower of Gold; 9
I the Hostel of the Sun am;
He the Lamb, and I the Fold.
He the Anteros and Eros
I the body, He the Cross;
He is fast to me, Ischyros,
Agios Athanatos! 40
'I, the Presence-hall, where Angels
Do enwheel their placéd King-
Even my thoughts which, without change else,
Cyclic burn and cyclic sing.
To the hollow of heaven transplanted,
I a breathing Eden spring,
Where with venom all outpanted
Lies the slimed Curse shrivelling.
For the brazen Serpent clear on
That old fangéd knowledge shone;
I to Wisdom rise, Ischyron, 50
Agion, Athanaton!
'Then commanded and spake to me
He who framed all things that be;
And my Maker entered through me,
In my tent His rest took He.
Lo! He standeth, Spouse and Brother,
I to Him, and He to me,
Who upraised me where my mother
Fell, beneath the apple-tree. 60
Rise 'twixt Anteros and Eros,
Blood and Water, Moon and Sun,
He upbears me, He Ischyros,
I bear Him, the Athanaton!'
Where is laid the Lord arisen?
In the light we walk in gloom;
Though the Sun has burst his prison,
We know not his biding-room.
Tell us where the Lord sojourneth,
For we find an empty tomb. 70
Whence He sprung, there he returneth,
Mystic Sun, - the Virgin's Womb'
Cloud-enpillared as He was
From of old, there He, Ischyros,
Waits our search, Athanatos.
Who is She, in candid vesture,
Rushing up from out the brine?
Treading with resilient gesture
Air, and with that Cup divine?
She in us and we in her are 80
Beating Godward: all that pine,
Lo, a wonder and a terror -
The Sun hath blushed the Sea to wine!
He the Anteros and Eros,
She the Bride and Spirit; for
Now the days of promise near us,
And the Sea shall be no more.
Open wide thy gates, O Virgin,
That the King may enter thee!
At all gates the clangours gurge in, 90
God's paludament lightens, see! 10
Camp of Angels! Well we even
Of this thing may doubtful be, -
If thou art assumed to heaven,
Or is heaven assumed to thee!
Consummatum. Christ the promised 11
Thy maiden realm, is won, O Strong!
Since to such sweet Kingdom comest,
Remember me, poor Thief of Song!
Cadent fails the stars along:- 100
Mortals, that behold a woman,
Rising 'twixt the Moon and Sun;
Who am I the heavens assume? an
All am I, and I am one.
Greek usage
There is a ring of triumph about this poem, and the use of Greek expressions and poetic devices bestows a sense of victory on the poet's poetic celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The fact that the Greek is fairly obscure to the general reader of our era, from whose school curriculum at first classical Greek and later classical Latin have largely been dropped, adds to the aura of scholastic formidability of the poet who pens them with a nonchalance which contrasts with the magnificence of their thunderous quality.
Like Newman and Hopkins, though in his own individual way, Thompson in his Marian poetry shows the era's intellectual approach to the topic of the Blessed Mary.
Dr Luky Whittle
1. The Hound of Heaven
http://www.houndsofheaven.com/thepoem.htm
2. The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
http://www.liturgies.net/Liturgies/Catholic/LittleOffice.htm
3. Assumpta Maria - Francis Thompson: 'Mortals that behold a woman - Thompson 1937:222
4. Anteros: Greek God who avenges slighted love
5. Eros: passionate love
6. Ischyros: Strong One
7. Agios: Holy One
Athanatos: Immortal One
8. Savannah: Treeless Plain
9. Danae of the Shower of Gold: Jupiter visited Danae in a shower of gold, Ovid; 'Metamorphoses', Book IV, lines 610-11.
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/402934/danae-receiving-the-shower-of-gold
10. Paludament: Cloak of a Roman general or chief officer
11. Consummatum: It is accomplished
With thanks to houndsofheaven.com, liturgies.net, royalcollection.org.uk
Edited by Catherine Nicolette
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