In poems of varying design, intention and effect, therefore, the nun-poets sing the praises of the Theotokos, of Mary as the Mother of God. Her role as the mother of humankind is equally important. In this context, she performs various functions, serving at times as an example of perfect motherhood, but more often as a mediatrix or intercessor, and as a source of hope and joy.
In "Fifth Dolour" by Sr M Lalemant, CSJ, for instance, associates the sorrow of the Blessed Virgin explicitly with "the torturous exchange / of Son for sons". So, too, Sr M Julian Baird, RSM, recognises the poverty of the "exchange" when she writes in "The Ascension":
Only long afterward
John realised
with what renunciation Mary turned away
from heaven's gate to Him
and smiled.
As mediatrix and intercessor, Mary is ever-present. Sr Maris Stella, CSJ, in "At the Shrine", sees the Blessed Virgin (literally a statue of her in her role of Our Lady of Peace) as "the lady who is not an image on a hillside / but a listening heart near by in accessible heaven".
The nun-poet's patent belief that bitterness and pain are made bearable by turning to Mary is illustrated; Sr M Philip, CSC, uses the technique of juxtaposing opposites to emphasise the motherhood of Mary in the poem "Cause of Our Joy": in a world of "darkness", "glaciers", "snow", "crags", "depths" and "storms", Mary provides "a star / to blaze the trail", "the warmth / of a fire's glow", "a rope / to hold me tight:, and - most essentially - "herself / with all her love". Sr Maris Stella, too, in a poem of the same name emphasises not only Our Lady's mothering of the baby Jesus, but also of her "other children who will always keep / the joy of your mysterious mothering, / Cause of our joy, heaven's gate, ... our mother".
Belief in the Mariological dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into Heaven was traditional from as early as the sixth century, and was solemnly defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Although this theme has inspired much beautiful poetry over the centuries, it is, like the theme of the Immaculate Conception, somewhat less often explored by the nun-poets. However, among them as well, it has produced some strikingly beautiful and, at times, hauntingly original poems.
In "Memories of the Assumption", Sr M Angeline, SSND, allows Mary's Assumption to parallel the Resurrection of her Son, with the re-opening of the tomb of "her of the Crucified", and makes use of a long-standing, though not Biblical, tradition in the final stanza, where lilies represent purity:
There was a swift intake of breath,
a hurried silent prayer:
startled they opened the new-made tomb
to find but lilies there.
Sr M Denis, OP, combines Biblical and traditional images with more everyday symbols, writing in "Flying Birds: On the Feast of Our Lady's Assumption" of birds flying in perfectly synchronised formation, and imagining the angels to have flown in a similar manner when carrying Mary up to Heaven, gazing on her
... whom clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet,
they bear to joyful reunion with her Son -
with Him who is also her God.
Sr M Julian, RSM, creatively imagines the jewellery crafted for the Blessed Virgin's celestial espousal to God in "For Our Lady's Espousals". In the final stanza, where she describes the Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven, which was traditionally help to have followed the Assumption, she skilfully combines the traditional Apocalyptic symbols with a very original application of human and natural imagery:
In after-time
standing upon a moon-throne
she will wear the stars for crown:
about slim, queenly shoulders will be thrown
the royal cloak of sunrise.
Having thus completed our consideration of the poems anthologised here in terms of the inspirational themes of the four articles of Catholic belief concerning Our Lady, it is also interesting to note that many which reveal the most modern content and/or the most striking messages and techniques in fact date from the 1940's, from the years of the Second World War, rather than from later decades. Thus Sr Maura, SSND, writes forcefully of the Blessed Virgin in "Our Lady of Science" that she is "a geometric form, / [a] being perfect in the subtle mind; / ... a prism glass ... / ... all elements combined, / [a] crucible of heart upstirred and warm". In similar vein, Sr Maryanna, OP, writes of "Our Lady of the Lab", purposely using the abbreviated, familiar-yet-impersonal version of the word "laboratory" to introduce a poem whose juxtaposition of Our Lady with scientific apparatus ("slab of glass", "vials and jars", "gaseous clouds", "test-tube[s]", "trough[s]" and "hydrogen sulphide")initially appears incongruous, indeed jarring. Yet it is by the combination of a scientific image ("acid") with one of the oldest images of monotheistic religion that Our Lady's power to bless and protect humankind from the lures of evil is made manifest :
... To her care
consign the young Curies who dabble there
lest, greatest of all dangers, they should meet
the serpent acid-fanged beneath her feet.
There can be few themes, whether in the Christian scriptures and tradition or elsewhere, which continue to produce such a great harvest of poetry of quality as these four themes of the Immaculate Conception, virginity, divine motherhood and Assumption of Our Lady. Apart from its worth as poetry in its own right, the selection anthologised here, particularly insofar as it makes available poetry written during the earlier twentieth century, provides an important literary-historical corrective on the general critical view of the modernist period as negative, fragmented and sceptical. The work of the nun-poets, even those poems on subjects of unhappiness, is invariably trusting and optimistic, due to the shining conviction of their faith that, whatever may befall them or humanity in general, God exists, loves His Creation, and is always in ultimate control.
Indeed, after reading Dr Whittle's doctoral dissertation, Prior Robert Stewart, OFM, the Provincial of the Order of Friars Minor in Southern Africa, described it as a weighty tome, but well worth the effort of digesting three hundred pages, since the research reflected in its pages rediscovered and made manifest a world of hope which readers never knew existed in the world of existential Angst.
AD JESUM PER MARIAM.
Dr Margaret Mary Raftery
BA Hons, HDE, MA (UND), M Phil (Oxon), PhD (UOFS)
Senior Lecturer English Dept, UOFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa
February 2000
Edited by Catherine Nicolette Whittle
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