“Where love and understanding join, hearts are tranquil,
They rise above the turmoil of this world, and are still, still
As the air above the moon.” So wrote an old monk, soon
Before his passing, to a friend far off, adding this boon,
That perseverance in hope leads on to Sabbath Rest,
That those who practice prayer with patience are twice blest.
William of St. Thierry was a Cistercian monk, circa a.d. 1145.
A Culture of Parricide
I learned a new word the other day: déploration. It’s the French, directly from the Latin, for “lament.”…
The Chariot Burials
Wheeling through the clotted earth, / Bronze, bone, and leather clumped in clay...
Briefly Noted
Sir Andrew Motion is former poet laureate of the United Kingdom and cofounder of the Poetry Archive...