Friday, April 26, 2013

Poem: Red is the Rose


JMJ
Red is the Rose
By Caitlin Clancy
Copyright 2013

Note: The refrain of this piece (and the title) is taken from a song by the Clancy Brothers, to whom, I should add, I am no relative in spite of the name.  I also was inspired by and took some of the image ideas from another song – I don’t know the title – that was performed at the Arlington Diocese pro-life youth rally some years back.  To the author of that unremembered song, therefore, I also am indebted.  Additionally, I have included some of my own authorial reflections below.

Red is the Rose 
That in yonder garden grows
Fair is the lily of the valley
Clear is the water
That flows from the Boyne
And my love is fairer than any

Red was the Rose 
That Friday morn
Red was the Rose
Indeed

In its quiet corner
Of the yard
Its petals perfect
Arrayed and starred
Its slender stalk
Was jerked and jarred
By a centurion’s hand

Red was the Rose
That the soldier plucked
The bloom that ne’er
Saw night

And little did poor
Brilliant red-heart Rose
Wonder that pain
Grows and grows
As the angered crowd
Crows and crows
“The Just One, Crucify!”

Ripped from its bed
Uprooted and torn
From beauty unblossomed
Of innocence shorn
Wrapped in a loop
Thrice a curse
Round sacred Head
Punished worse
By silence
Death He would disperse –
And so the world goes on.

Red is the Rose 
That in yonder garden grows
Fair is the lily of the valley

Fast in its knot
The rose was dead
The Woman saw it
As He was led
Upon the road
Beneath the cross
The world, His weight
Their joy, Her loss

White was the Lily
Who stood and watched
White was the Lily
Indeed

And white was her veil
Who wept beside
Who fully knew
What woe betide;
She alone
Could not jeer
She alone
Had Dolors, not cheer
Who from His
First and silent year
Knew what the wise knew not.

Red is the Rose 
That in yonder garden grows
Fair is the lily of the valley

Sharp came the thrust
Into the Temple
The spear that broke the law
Hard twixt the ribs
Of the Holy of Holies
The cold metal point
Waxed raw         

Clear was the water
That flowed from the Temple
Clear was the water
Indeed

And the rose pressed hard
On the bloody wood
And the Lily wept
As no one could;
And they looked on His face
And did not remain
Knowing the Child
That they had slain
And filled their hearts
With the blood
Of Cain. 

Red is the Rose 
That in yonder garden grows
Fair is the lily of the valley

The rose, cast aside
On the hillside,
To wither, rot, decay
Blossomed one fair morning
A solemn, paschal day;
It budded and it blossomed
It lifted up its head
Never to fade or fall again
Never to shrivel
Never to sin
Never to lie cold
When the Word walks in –
As though all Hope were dead! 

Red is the Rose 
That in yonder garden grows
Fair is the lily of the valley
Clear is the water
That flows from the Boyne
And my love is fairer than any



Author's Notes:  

This poem, if it is not already obvious, centers on the Passion of Christ.  I thought that the verse of the Clancy Brother's song especially appropriate to incorporate as the images it presents fit so well with the events of the Crucifixion (for instance, the water flowing from the side of Christ, Our Lady's purity as exemplified by the lily, etc.).  Also - and I confess I got this idea from the song-mentioned-above-the-title-of-which-I-cannot-recall - that the rose may be taken as the metaphor of the individual soul and its journey.  

And for those of you who (like me) get unreasonably excited by numeric significance and the like: note that the number of stanzas (refrains excepted) comes to 12 (like the Apostles and the Tribes of Israel): five at the first, then three, three, and one.  I am not sure where the five come from, but there seems to be a kind of unconscious Trinity metaphor mixed into the latter part.  But what can I say?  It seems to me that such unintentional creations (and the numerical structure of this piece was, I avow, quite unintentional) are likely the simple and natural product of Catholic blood.

1 comment:

  1. I remember this one...I Love both it and you.

    Kindest Personal Regards,

    -Anonymous

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