The Anathemata
Sherthursdaye and Venus day (continued)
that dance
by garnished Bauma
or anointed stone.
Here, in this place
as in Sarras city
(where the maim was ended
at the voyage-end)1
in his second Ephratab
here in the upper cave of bread2
between his creatures again his Body shows.
At the low entry
stirs the sleeping dog?
in Bedlem-byre once his bed.
(Long years beyond the twentieth year!)3
Here, in this high place
into both hands4
he takes the stemmed dish
as in many places
by this poured and that held up
wherever their directing glosses read:
Here he takes the victim.5
David Jones notes
1 The allusion is to ‘the Cyte of Sarras in the spyrytuel place’ (Malory, Bk. XVII). It was at the city of Sarras that the Grail-quest was consummated, the Maimed King healed and from whence the lance and vessel were taken up to heaven .
2 Cf. Homily 8, of the homilies on the Gospels by Pope Gregory the Great, where he speaks of the place-name Beth-Lehem, ‘house of bread’, with reference to our Lord as the bread of heaven. (Breviary, Christmas Day, Matins, 3rd Nocturn, Lesson VII.)
3 Cf. Odyssey XVII 326-7, ‘But the fate of black death overtook Argos immediately when he had seen Odysseus in the twentieth year.’ Cf. note to page 192.
4 See the rubric: ambabus manibus accipit calicem directing the celebrant how and when to take hold of the chalice about to be consecrated according to the Roman formulae.
5 See accipit hostiam, the rubric which has already directed him—when he handled the bread to consecrate it.
additional notes
b Ephrata: a place name in the Old Testament formerly believed to refer to Bethlehem or somewhere in its vicinity in view of the Biblical quotation in Micah 5:2 ‘But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel’ which is taken to be a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. As the first cave (the birthplace of Jesus) was in Bethlehem, so the second cave is the upper room in Jerusalem. Does the old dog still recognise the Child as the Man, even though it has been more than 20 years?
see also
semantic structures
The low/high contrast echoes that at the beginning of the poem (page 51).
glossary
a Baum: tree (German).
comments
We return to where we began: the Mass, the rite of the body and blood of Christ. The bread, once concecrated, is called the hostia in Latin, meaning ‘sacrificial victim’.