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Saturday 14 March 2015

Saturday Rave: The Bridal Morn. Anonymous.

Here's something very precious, and very old.

The identity of the writer isn't known, but he (or she - I feel inclined to believe it was a she) would have been writing around the turn of the 1500s.

If this poem had been written nowadays it probably wouldn't be set on the morning of a wedding. But the essential truth of it is surely immortal.

The Bridal Morn

The maidens came
When I was in my mother's bower;
I had all I would.
The bailey beareth the  bell away;
The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.
The silver is white, red is the gold;
The robes they lay in fold.
The bailey beareth the bell away;
The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.
And through the glass window shines the sun,
How should I love, and I so young?
The bailey beareth the bell away;
The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.

I'm not certain of the meaning of all of it; but its sumptuous mystery sends sparks straight to my heart.

File:Tapestry by unknown weaver - The Offering of the Heart - WGA24173.jpg
The Offering of the Heart, Anonymous. The Louvre.


Word To Use Today: lily. This word has existed in English since before the Norman Conquest of 1066. It came from Latin, and before that from the Greek word leirion.


1 comment:

  1. Hi Niku. Thanks for your comment. I suppose it's worth saving because it gives us space to imagine a meaning, and to imagine the bride and her feelings towards her marriage. None of us understand anything really properly, after all, do we!

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