With the governments throughout the world now seeking to
impose a foreign 'morality' on it's Christian subjects, I was reminded of the
Prelude to Williams 'Taliessin' poems, and in particular the first two lines of
'Prelude II'. The whole context of Williams words here seem strangely prescient
in the world of 2013 where once again we are engulfed in a battle of ideologies.
As Williams writes, "The blind rulers of
Logres...", encapsulating for me the whole leadership of the liberal, I
would say libertine, West. But what do you think?
Prelude
I
Recalcitrant tribes heard;
orthodox wisdom sprang in Caucasia andThule ;
the glory of the Emperor stretched to the ends of the world.
In the season of midmost Sophia
the word of the Emperor established a kingdom inBritain ;
they sang in Sophia the immaculate conception of wisdom.
Carbonek. Camelot,Caucasia ,
were gates and containers, intermediations of light;
geography breathing geometry, the double-fledged Logos.
II
The blind rulers of Logres
nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue;
the seals of the saints were broken; the chairs of the Table reeled.
Galahad quickened in the Mercy;
but history began; the Moslem stormedByzantium ;
lost was the glory, lost the power and kingdom.
Call on the hills to hide us
lest, men said in the City, the lord of charity
ride in the starlight, sole flash of the Emperor's glory.
III
Evil and good were twins
once in the alleys of Ispahan; the Moslem
crying Alla il Alla destroyed the dualism ofPersia .
Caucasia fell to the Moslem;
the mamelukes seized the ancient cornland of Empire.
Union is breached; the imams stand in Sophia.
Good is God, the muezzin
calls, but lost is the light on the hills ofCaucasia ,
Glory of the Emperor, glory of substantial being.
I
Recalcitrant tribes heard;
orthodox wisdom sprang in Caucasia and
the glory of the Emperor stretched to the ends of the world.
In the season of midmost Sophia
the word of the Emperor established a kingdom in
they sang in Sophia the immaculate conception of wisdom.
Carbonek. Camelot,
were gates and containers, intermediations of light;
geography breathing geometry, the double-fledged Logos.
II
The blind rulers of Logres
nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue;
the seals of the saints were broken; the chairs of the Table reeled.
Galahad quickened in the Mercy;
but history began; the Moslem stormed
lost was the glory, lost the power and kingdom.
Call on the hills to hide us
lest, men said in the City, the lord of charity
ride in the starlight, sole flash of the Emperor's glory.
III
Evil and good were twins
once in the alleys of Ispahan; the Moslem
crying Alla il Alla destroyed the dualism of
the mamelukes seized the ancient cornland of Empire.
Good is God, the muezzin
calls, but lost is the light on the hills of
Glory of the Emperor, glory of substantial being.
Charles Williams (1938)
1 comment:
You said " 'The blind rulers of Logres...', encapsulating for me the whole leadership of the liberal, I would say libertine, West. But what do you think?
Secular humanism leads us to a place where the Spiritual is ignored and all "beliefs" are equal. Indeed " ... lost is the light on the hills of ,
Glory of the Emperor, glory of substantial being."
Post a Comment