And I think he's rather daring too
in one of these ballads, the one called of the nativity, which
I believe is mimeographed.
What is daring about this is seeing in the birth of Christ,
which Saint John sees as a union of God
and man in seeing in this a kind of marriage.
One of these is the bride, one is the groom,
spirit marries flesh.
And Saint John sees, again, in a way
that some have found shocking the birth of Christ
in terms of a marriage.
In time, it came around the time ripe for the birth of a boy,
much as a bridegroom steps fresh from the chamber of joy.
Arm in arm he arrived entwining the sweetheart he chose.
Both in a byre at hand, the pleasant mother
reposed among oxen and burros and such as the winter
sky drove in.
How they struck up a tune those folk sweeter the angels sang.
There was a bridle to chant, there was a pair well wed,
but why did he sob and sob God in his rough hewn bed,
such a dazzle of tears.
This gift all at the bride could bring
how the mother was struck at so topsy-turvy
a thing, distress of the flesh in God,
in man the pitch of delight pairs
never couples so, different as day and night.
That's not as important a poem I think as the first one I read.
The whole series it's from is a less, less important kind
of poetry.
What I think is exciting about it
is purely the way the image works out
in this particular poem.