The Anathemata
Rite and Fore-time (continued)
Now, from the the draughty flats
the ageless cherubsa
pout the Southerlies.
Now, Januarius brings in the millennial snow that makes the antlered mummers glow for many a hemerab.
The Vorzeit c-masque is on
that moves to the cosmic introitd.
Col cantoe the piping for this turn.
Unmeasured, irregular in stress and interval, of interior rhythm, modal.
If tonic and final are fire
the dominant is ice
if fifth the fire
the cadence ice.
At these Nocturns the hebdomadary is apt to be vested for five hundred thousand weeks.1
Intunes the Dog:f
Benedicite ignis . . .
Cantor Notus and Favoniusg with all their south-aisled numina:h
David Jones notes
1 Cf. the term Hebdomadarius, which is used of that member of a chapter or religious community whose office it is to lead in choir. His or her duties last a week.
additional notes
a The old cartographers’ conventional representation of cherubs blowing the winds from the four corners of the map.
d The introit is the true beginning of the Mass and the first part to be sung.
ecol canto: with singing; the description in the following line makes it clear that the chant is plainsong, which makes use of the intervals of the tonic and dominant (the fifth note of the scale). The move from one to the other is made to correspond to the meteorological changes of the preceding sections.
f Sirius, the Dog-star of summer, whose heliacal rising corresponds to the hottest days (in the northern hemisphere), calls on fire to bless the Lord, with a similar invitation to ice in the next paragraph. The source for these invocations is the Benedicite, the song of the three young men in the burning fiery furnace of Daniel 3.52-90.
g Notus and Favonius are the Greek gods of the south and west winds respectively.
h In the liturgical traditions of Western Christianity, the Epistle side is the term used to designate the side of a church on which the Epistle is read during the Mass or Eucharist. Facing the altar, it is the right-hand or liturgical south side (assuming the church faces east, as is usual). The Gospel (or north) side is the other side of the church, where the Gospel is read. The choir is usually arranged on both sides, so that they can sing antiphonally, one side responding to the other.
see also
semantic structures
glossary
bhemera: Greek for ‘day’.
c Vorzeit: German for ‘fore-time’.
h numina: plural of the Latin numen, spirit (in this context).
comments
The stage scene or masque described in the previous paragraph is accompanied by dance, music and chant; the poet here also relates it to a perfomance of the Mass.