Over this house a star
Shines in the heavens high,
Beauty remote and afar,
Beauty that shall not die;
Beauty desired and dreamed,
Followed in storm and sun,
Beauty the gods have schemed
And mortals at last have won.
Beauty arose of old
And dreamed of a perfect thing,
Where none shall be angry or cold
Or armed with an evil sting;
Where the world shall be made anew,
For the gods shall breathe its air,
And Phoebus Apollo there-through
Shall move on a golden stair.
The star that all lives shall seek,
That makers of books desire;
All that in anywise speak
Look to this silver fire:
O'er the toil that is giv'n to do,
O'er the search and the grinding pain
Seen by the holy few,
Perfection glimmers again.
O dreamed in an eager youth,
O known between friend and friend,
Seen by the seekers of truth,
Lo, peace and the perfect end!
(Charles Williams)
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2 comments:
Having just returned from a week's Study School in Oxford, I was reminded of this poem by visiting once again Charles and Michal's grave in St. Cross Cemetery; now also the grave of their only son.
Years ago on the anniversary of Charles' death I placed this poem on his grave... changing the word 'house' in the first line to 'grave'.
This is a beautiful poem, full of the sehnsucht that characterises all the Inklings' work. Having said that, I pause: Williams, here, focuses more on the fulfillment of the desire than the desire itself in such lines as:
mortals at last have won.
Seen by the seekers of truth,
Lo, peace and the perfect end!
This seems a superficially more orthodox position than Lewis's of a longing that is more desirable than any satisfaction. Does anyone know what Williams's ideas were on Lewis's "joy"?
-- Admonit
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