National Poetry Month: St Patrick's Rune by Madeleine de l'Engel

[lokifan_import]

I was going to post some Phillip Larkin today (he was grumpy, brilliant, and obsessed with porn: like us!) but I just had a nap, and during that nap I had a nightmare. I never have nightmares, and when I do they’re either about my family or very suspenseful. This was a hideously graphic one which involved, among other things, my crashing an actual bus with people in it because I was driving it via computer game, and seeing the hideously graphic death of a friend of mine (only in the dream, but it still hurt) and nameless year sevens, who were all run over by a train.

THANKS, BRAIN.

I was going to post something incorrigibly cheery – some John Asgard, perhaps – but truthfully the dream freaked me out enough that I want something to protect me.

St Patrick’s Rune by Madeleine de l’Engel

At Tara in this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness!



NB: there are a few different versions of this even within the book I took it from; it’s also based on the fourth verse of an hymn called “St Patrick’s Breastplate”.

It’s just gorgeous, isn’t it? The rhythm is awkward, at first, and hard to read aloud. But give it a few times, and it gets a certain appeal. The rolling rhythm makes it seem strong, to me: it’s the way it builds up all the natural protections (and I like the idea that these natural powers are benign, or at least resistant to unnatural darkness) then pauses. The final three lines and the declaration – all these things stand between me and you, you cannot reach me – I truly find very comforting. It’s also partly the memory of the book, of course; Madeleine de L’Engel is one of my favourite authors, and the poem brings with it warm and fuzzy associations of A Swiftly Tilting Planet. In that book, St Patrick’s Rune for Protection saves us from nuclear war.

And now, it’s just made me feel a lot better about my nightmare. Thanks, St Patrick, even if you didn’t like snakes much. :)

Comments

[tuawahine.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I love that one so much. I learned it by heart when I first read the book and I just checked, I can still do it. (The German translation though, I wasn't that old then.)
It really does feel like a protection spell to say it out loud.

[lokifan]

Yay!

I see you wrote rentboy!Draco with a surprise pairing! So I will come back and reply properly once I have EATEN IT WITH A SPOON OH NOM NOM.

[lokifan]

Now I'm back from the porn interlude...

I love that someone else does that! This and a few other favourite poems of mine I know off by heart. Which actually led to this incredibly satisfying moment the other day - my awesome but ancient seminar leader was complaining about how we don't learn poems off by heart any more, and I recited the whole of Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? for the sheer LOLs.

It does feel like a protection spell, yes. I recited it to myself, wrote the post, and then felt SO MUCH better.

[tuawahine.livejournal.com]

lol

I am possibly a bit odd that way, but I love learning poems by heart. (I used to know quite a few from The Lord of the Rings.)
Hee, we had to learn 'Shall I compare thee...' in English class. And I think I can still recite most of Schiller's Die Bürgschaft (which is on the long side - our German teacher made us learn it).
Ahem, yeah...

I may have to snag that icon. *loves*

[woldy]

Very nice & a good anti-bad-dream poem.

I shall look forward to the Larkin on another day :-)

[lokifan]

:) Thanks!

I think I have two Larkins coming up this month. I have much love for the grumpy old git, even though generally anything that glorifies 'pastoral olde England' makes me run a mile.

[klashfor.livejournal.com]

I was going to post some Phillip Larkin today (he was grumpy, brilliant, and obsessed with porn: like us!) To whom are you referring?!?!?!

I love this poem. You need to make a file with all of the ones you're posting as a starter guide for the lesser informed i.e. ME. I fail at poetry.

[lokifan]

LMAO! Well we are brilliantly intelligent and grumpy and obsessed with porn! It's a good description for this corner of fandom! Including YOU.

:) I'm so pleased you like it! And LOL at this stuff being a starter guide. It is not a starter guide! It is shamelessly partisan! It is me picking my favourites! It is me totally ignoring whole movements!

That said, I'm wriggling with glee that you asked and if you feel the same way at the end of the month, I may well learn how to use PDF technology and put up a set for people to download. I think hpfan12 would prolly like it too.