I’m not surprised you like white rosaries
if you’re the Virgin they say you are
we said them once by capillaries
drop after drop that bled from our scars
till at death we make you a coronal
a knuckle-duster from our blanched power
just as Romans wove their saviour generals
straw wreaths from battlefield flowers
we grip crystal to stand for our death sweat
and male seed from which you’re immaculate
human need for which you felt no regret
for tears measured by tens are accurate
we count it the crown of our sorrows
that girlhood godhead alike were borrowed
The Bear
Oxford
21 June 2018
Jesuits have been interested in the sonnet form, and Gerard Hopkins SJ composed his ” Terrible Sonnets” of religious crisis, and ” Duns Scotus’ Oxford”, which is pretty hard on my college, Keble.
The Catholic Church has always had a problem with loyal dissent or loyal opposition, which is why iconoclasm and blasphemy result. This by contrast is a ” having it out” with a doctrine and practice. By the way Line 7 does have ten pronounced syllables. No point pretending I don’t pronounce “saviour” and “general” with dissyllables.
The corona graminea was the highest honour of the Roman Army, awarded to a general who had saved an army from destruction. It was a wreath gathered from the grass and wildflowers of the battlefield. It was a rare distinction.