The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
And from where over-gown and under-gown and linen draped the clavicled torusa of it, her neck-shaft of full entasis,b as though of Parianc that never ages, still as a megalith, and as numinous:
yet, as limber to turn
as the poised neck at the forest-fence
between find and view
too quick, even for the eyes of the gillies’ of Arthur, but seen of the forest-ancramand (he had but one eye)
between decade and Gloria.
David Jones notes
additional notes
see also
semantic structures
glossary
a torus: the lowest moulding at the base of a column, i.e. her collarbones (clavicles).
b entasis: a slight convex curve in the shaft of a column, introduced to correct the visual illusion of concavity produced by a straight shaft.
c Parian marble is a fine-grained semitranslucent pure-white and entirely flawless marble quarried during the classical era on the Greek island of Paros in the Aegean Sea. It was highly prized by ancient Greeks for making sculptures.
d ancraman: a hermit. Here he is finishing a decade (ten Hail Mary’s) of his rosary before starting the ‘Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto’ which divides one decade from another, when he catches sight of a deer for an instant.
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back to Gwenhwyfar and her statuesque yet lithe and elegant neck.