Johannes, son of Gilbert, born
At Warren Magna, com. Wigorn.,
Till one-and-twenty simple John,
Cast his eyes on Alison ;
Spouted, fourteenth-century wise,
Odes to his ‘ parvenke of price ‘ ;
Loved and lost his ‘ parfit perle,’
Who was indeed a common girl ;
Forswore the world and joined instead
A priory, and shaved his head,
Learnt reading, writing, Latin : thus
Non nascitur,fit monachus.
His priory can still be seen,
Though ruined, by the village green
Where children used to gather round
Brother Johannes on the ground ;
For none had tales so good to tell,
And none could tell the tales so well.
And when the dragon had been killed,
The giant’s doom at length fulfilled,
When the princess, that lady bright,
Was safely married to her knight,
Brother Johannes let them dip
Their hands into his magic scrip ;
And Warren’s orchards were the pride,
And still are, of that countryside.
The priory had another claim,
And this to more enduring fame.
Johannes, travelling overseas
In youth, had met Jehan de Grise,
And many were the pains he took
To learn his craft to limn a book :
And, once again to Warren come,
In the Refectorium
Showed them how the skin was ripped
To make a vellum manuscript ;
How to stretch the parchment tight,
How (with pounce) to make it white ;
Taught them to make cinnabar,
Lampblack, gum, and vinegar ;
How to temper, how to use
Azure, roset, and ceruse ;
How upon a stone to mill
Ochre, alum-glass, brazil ;
How to size, and lay with care
Goldleaf on the tacky glair
With the pencil and the brush,
And burnish it with wild-boar’s tush.
Year in, year out, from day to day
He taught the novices the way
To make such books, and write therein
The tender carols that begin
‘ Thys endris nyght a chyld is born
To save mankynd that was forlorn ‘ ;
And little songs of ‘ briddes roun ‘
When Lenten comes with love to town.
Johannes had one annual sin,
Committed when the days begin
To lengthen out in early May,
And bloom is on the hawthorn spray.
And this one sin was worse by far
Than sudden moral lapses are ;
These are spontaneous, done by chance ;
That, calculated in advance.
For yearly, on the first of May,
Johannes woke before the day,
And couched in his ascetic cell
Spent the long hour till matin-bell
In sinful dreaming. First he heard
Some timid whistle of a bird
That was not sure the night was gone,
But wished he dared to sing alone.
Next, a swallow flying high
And balancing in palest sky,
The world below him lying dumb,
Would pipe the signal, ‘ Day has come ‘ ;
And then the birds would hail the light
And sing a requiem to night ;
And then the scent of may would rise
And tears would fill Johannes’ eyes . . .
He could not but recall the day
Years ago, that first of May !
When rising early he had gone
To gather may with Alison ;
And how they rambled hand-in-hand
Through the summer-breathing land,
Plucked the white and pulled the red,
What he whispered, what she said . . .
Just a word : they rambled on.
Cruel pretty Alison ! . . .
Then through the year he would redeem
By penance his May-morning dream.
Johannes never sang his Nunc
Dimittis, as becomes a monk.
One first-of-May the matin-bell
Failed to rouse him from the spell ;
And even when the prior spake
Exhorting him, he did not wake
Nor slept, but lay with eyes astare,
Stroking the shaggy pelt of bear
That covered him : the tufted curls
Felt as soft as any girl’s . . .
The brethren watched ; perhaps a few
Guessed the cause the prior knew ;
And, kneeling, for his soul’s release,
Absolved him, and he died in peace.
They buried him beneath the aisle.
The children missed him for a while.
(Frank Sidgwick)
More Poetry from Frank Sidgwick:
Frank Sidgwick Poems based on Topics: World, Sin, Night, War & Peace, Books, Love, Fame, Birds, Education, Travelling, Light- An English Poet. (Frank Sidgwick Poems)
- A Study in Pink (Frank Sidgwick Poems)
- When My Ship Comes In (Frank Sidgwick Poems)
- The Not Impossible She: (Frank Sidgwick Poems)
- Macintosh's Lyrical Monologue. (Frank Sidgwick Poems)
- The Velocipedia Britannica. (Frank Sidgwick Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, World Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, War & Peace Poems, Youth Poems, Dreams Poems, Birds Poems, Sons Poems, Wisdom & Knowledge Poems, Education PoemsBased on Keywords: hand-in-hand, tush, palest, absolved, lapses, thys, spouted, vellum, pounce, nyght, ascetic