Graham Hough, discussing twentieth-century poetry (in Bradbury 1976:320), describes writing a series of lyrics,
as opposed to larger-scale literary works with their stricter formal requirements, as rather like keeping a spiritual diary. He continues:
Much twentieth-century criticism has played down the biographical connection between the poet and his poems, and regards the work as an artefact, floating free from its creator.
But this cannot disguise the fact that poetry which takes the lyric as its primary model will always tend to follow the contours of individual experience.
Indeed, it may well be the very fervour of this individual experience which enables the modern lyric in general, and the Marian poetry of the nun-poets anthologised here in particular, to involve the present-day reader with great immediacy and thus to convey a depth of significance almost unknown in other genres.
North American nun-poets
This anthology presents a body of poetry hitherto practically unknown and uncommented upon in literary histories - in the main, that of North American nun-poets of the 1920s to the 1950s.
Many of these nun-poets, far from being sequestered from the world in remote cloisters, were active in the world; many were members of the Catholic Poetry Society of America, founded in 1931.
Their literary work, however, if disseminated at all, generally saw the light of day only in very ephemeral publications, and had thus within two decades become all but inaccessible to readers until Dr Luky Whittle returned it to its rightful place among the writing of the modernist period in her "Images of Mary".
The poems anthologised represent a selection from the work of the nun-poets investigated in that study, with the addition of several nun-poets working in later decades and in other countries, including South Africa.
The poems have been chosen on the basis of the religious faith and devotion which they reveal, and the immediacy with which they engage the reader. Hence, the focus in this introduction is on the spiritual significance of the works, rather than on literary-theoretical critique.
Marian poetry
Marian poetry in English has a long and distinguished history dating back to the very origins of the language itself.
The earliest extant English Marian poetry is found in the eighth century AD and is the product of the pen of the Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf, who makes use of the impressive rhetoric of Latin and Greek songs of praise.
The twelfth century sees St Godric writing Marian lyrics such as "A Cry to Mary".
Through the Middle Ages, however, most of the Marian poets are anonymous, either for reasons of religious humility, or simply due to the passage of time.
A dramatic decline in the volume of Marian poetry occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although there were notable exceptions such as the Jesuit Robert Southwell (1561-1595). In the nineteenth century, along with individuals such as the priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), the mainly Anglican poets of the Oxford Movement and the Pre-Raphaelites were responsible for a new flowering of Marian poetry.
Twentieth century
I n the twentieth century there have been periods of great interest in Our Lady, both in the decades when the poems selected for this anthology were written and in the present day, when the approach of a new millennium (the bi-miillennium of Christianity) has brought with it a renewed reverence for the Mother of God, evidenced inter alia in the phenomenon of Medjugorje (which is still under consideration by the Church).
Hailed as the Theotokos (God-bearer) by the Council of Ephesus as early as 431 AD, Mary was in 1950 proclaimed by Pope Pius XII to have been assumed body and soul into heaven.
Life Magazine thought it accurate to announce in its Christmas edition of 1996 that: "Two thousand years after the Nativity, the mother of Jesus is more beloved [and] powerful ... than ever".
Clearly, recognition of this love and power is as strong today as in the decades when the nun-poets whose poetry is anthologised here were active.
In the words of Fr Frederick M Jelly OP (1997:133):
As mysterious as the eschatological doctrines might be, we who are still living in the Pilgrim Church are bonded with our brothers and sisters in the heavenly Church from throughout space and time, and are helped on our pilgrimage of faith by our liturgical and private devotions in relation to the intercession and mediation of Mary and all the saints, as well as by the inspiration of their holy
lives in Christ, the Crown of all the saints.
Mariology
Mariology is an organic element of the redemptive saga of Christ in Catholic doctrine.
As Pope Pul VI put it in Marialis Cultus (1974:23), "In the Virgin Mary everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon Him".
Many of the nun-poets' works reflect this reciprocal, or mirroring relationship.
So, for example, in "Child and Madonna" by Sister M Ada CSJ, Christ is described as the "Grain of Wheat" and Mary as the field which bears His "yield".
In terms of the priority thus afforded by the Church to the mutual relationship of Christ and Our Lady, the four most important Catholic articles of belief relate to the Blessed Virgin's Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, her divine maternity, and her Assumption.
According to the Bible, supported by Catholic dogma and tradition, this is Our Lady's story:
An angel sent from God invited her to be the Mother of His Son, and she became His handmaid, while remaining an immaculate virgin. Joseph, to whom she was betrothed, perplexed by what appeared to be infidelity on her part, pondered ways of terminating their betrothal without public disgrace. His doubts were allayed when God again sent an angel, to explain the Divine Origin of the Incarnation. Having travelled to Bethlehem for a census, Mary gave birth in a stable because there was no room in the inn. In the dead of night she fled to Egypt to protect her Child from Herod's wrath. When presenting the baby Jesus in the Temple, she was warned by Simeon that a sword would pierce her heart.
Searched for Jesus
In Jesus' teenage years, she searched the length and breadth of Jerusalem for three days and nights, and found her Son debating with the Jewish priests. His first miracle, at Cana, was performed at her request.
We hear little or nothing of her from this point on until, years later, she met Him, battered, bruised and bleeding, as He carried His Cross on the road to Calvary.
She stood grieving beneath this Cross and watched Him die an appalling death, nails piercing His Hands and Feet.
When His Body was taken down from the Cross, she received Him in her arms, as she had held Him as her Child.
She remained close to the apostles after His death and may be assumed to have met Him after His Resurrection, and to have bidden Him farewell when He ascended to Heaven.
Paraclete
She was with the apostles in prayer when the Paraclete sent by Christ overshadowed and transformed them into fearless advocates of the Gospel.
On her own death, she, like the prophet Elijah, was assumed body
and soul into Heaven.
As the Mother of God, she is also the mother of humanity, and thus our primary and most effective advocate, or intercessor.
Dr Margaret Mary Raftery
BA Hons, HDE, MA (UND), M Phil (Oxon), PhD (UOFS)
Senior Lecturer English Dept, UOFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa
February 2000
Bradbury, Malcolm (Ed) 1976. Modernism. Harmondsworth: Penguin
Jelly OP, Frederick M, F 1997. Roman Catholic Response to the Ecumenical Theme. ("Ut Omnes Unum Sint", PT3). In: Mariological Association of America: Marian Studies. Volume 48.
Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness Paul VI Marialis Cultus
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19740202_marialis-cultus_en.html
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