The Anathemata
Rite and Fore-time (continued)
and how turned?
When
(How
from early knocking stick or stane?)
the first New Fire wormed
at the Easter of Technics.
What a holy Saturn’s day!
O vere beata nox ! 1
David Jones notes
1 O vere beata nox, ‘O truly blessed night’. See the Exsultet chanted by the deacon at the blessing of the Paschal Candle which is lighted from a fire of charcoal newly kindled by striking flint. This occurs once in the annual cycle, in the spring, on Easter Saturday. From the new fire so kindled the lamps and candles used during the ensuing twelve months are subsequently lit.
comments
In these last few paragraphs the poet has been wondering to what extent the evidence of early artefacture is evidence of rite and culture, the supreme example of which is the Christian ceremonial associated with Easter.
From this point on, until page 66, when the geography becomes more precisely defined, we run through the development of man as homo faber, side by side with the geological development of the earth.