Funeral Music
William de la Pole,
Duke of Suffolk: beheaded 1450
John Tiptoft, Earl of
Worcester: beheaded 1470
Anthony Woodville,
Earl Rivers: beheaded 1483
I
Processionals in the
exemplary cave,
Benediction of
shadows. Pomfret. London.
The voice fragrant
with mannered humility,
With an equable
contempt for this world,
‘In honorem
Trinitatis’. Crash. The head
Struck down into a
meaty conduit of blood.
So these dispose
themselves to receive each
Pentecostal blow from
axe or seraph,
Spattering
block-straw with mortal residue.
Psalteries whine
through the empyrean. Fire
Flares in the pit,
ghosting upon stone
Creatures of such
rampant state, vacuous
Ceremony of
possession, restless
Habitation, no man’s
dwelling-place.
Source of the text –
Geoffrey Hill, Broken Hierarchies:
Poems 1952-2012. Oxford University Press, 2013.
TJB: Contempt-fragments.
The world is not enough for these guys yet this essay-sonnet expresses no
opinion about what’s beyond the platonic cave.
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