Anima Christi
Soul of Christ
Anima Christi sanctifica me,
Soul of Christ purify me
Corpus Christi salva me,
Body of Christ save me
Sanguis Christi inebria me,
Blood of Christ intoxicate me
Aqua lateris Christi lava me,
Water from the side of Christ wash me
Passio Christi conforta me.
Passion of Christ strengthen me
O bone Jesu exaudi me,
O good Jesus hear me
Intra vulnera tua absconde me,
Within your wounds hide me
Ne permittas me seperavi a te.
Do not allow me to be parted from you
Ab hoste maligno defende me.
From the wicked enemy defend me
In hora mortis meae voca me,
At the hour of my death call me
Et iube me venire ad te,
And tell me to come to you
Ut cum sanctis tuis laudem te
That with your saints I may praise you
In saecula saeculorum.
For ever and ever
Amen
Anon. 14th Century (translation by
Edward Jones)
A Short Carol
There was a boy bedded in bracken,
Like to a sleeping snake all curled he lay;
On his thin navel turned the spinning
sphere,
Each feeble finger fetched seven suns
away.
He was not dropped in good for lambing
weather,
He took no suck when shook birds sing
together;
But he is come in cold-as-workhouse
weather,
Poor as a Salford child.
He saw, and kissed her holy habit’s hem.
A Gulling Sonnet
He sang as homeward on his way he trod
“Nothing is that is not God.”
Walter de la Mare
The sacred Muse that first made love
divine
Hath made him naked and without attire,
But I will clothe him with this pen of
mine
That all the world his fashion shall
admire.
His hat of hope, his band of beauty fine,
His cloak of craft, his doublet of desire,
Grief for a girdle, shall about him twine,
His points of pride, his eyelet holes of ire,
His hose of hate, his codpiece of conceit,
His stockings of stern strife, his shirt of
shame,
His garters of vainglory gay and slight,
His pantofles of passion will I frame,
Pumps of presumption shall adorn his feet
And socks of sulleness exceeding sweet.
Spring and Fall
Sir John Davies
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can
you?
Ah! As the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie.
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
Who’s Who
Christopher Schenk
Epitaph
John Short
Anthem for St Fridewide
“All that is not God is naught.”
So the saintly virgin taught.
The blessèd daughter of a king,
Saint ffrediswyde of whom we sing.
Her the hapless Algar woo’d,
But she created things eschewed.
Algar did not understand,
And bent to kiss her on the hand.
Wrathful heav’n sent down a lightning
flash so bright,
It robbed the rash foolhardy youth of
sight.
And would have plunged him into
everlasting night,
Had not the Abbess sorrowed at his plight.
“Saint Margaret and Saint Katherine,” so
she cried,
“Have pity on poor Alger for the sake of
ffrediswyde.”
The saints appeared and struck the ground
whence sprang
A well of holy water while the Virgins
sang.
Then holy Frideswide stooped to rinse
The afflicted eyelids of the Mercian
prince.
His wound was healed without a wem:
Here lies a most beautiful lady,
Light of step and heart was she;
I think she was the most beautiful lady
That ever was in the West Country.
But beauty vanishes; beauty passes;
However rare – rare it be;
And when I crumble, who will remember
This lady of the West Country?
Berlin, Sir Isaiah. Born 6 June 1909.
Educ. at St Paul’s and Corpus Christi, and
taught at New College ’38–’50. War
service in the MOI. Publications include
the following: Karl Marx 1939,
translation from the Russian of First Love
by Turgenev, Historical Inevitability,
Four Essays on Liberty. Doctor at the
following Universities: London,
Liverpool, Jerusalem. And President of
the British Academy. He wrote The
Hedgehog and the Fox, and then The Age
of Enlightenment. Then there’s Wolfson:
he’s founding President of Wolfson
College.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
arr. Ruth Padel