Angilbert (fl. ca. 840/50), On the Battle Which was Fought at Fontenoy

The Law of Christians is broken,
Blood by the hands of hell profusely shed like rain,
And the throat of Cerberus bellows songs of joy.

Angelbertus, Versus de Bella que fuit acta Fontaneto

Fracta est lex christianorum
Sanguinis proluvio, unde manus inferorum,
gaudet gula Cerberi.
Showing posts with label "Be Angry at the Sun". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Be Angry at the Sun". Show all posts

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"Be Angry at the Sun"

This day's entry is a poem by Robinson Jeffers entitled "Be Angry at the Sun." It comes from his collection of poems of the same name Be Angry with the Sun published by Random House in 1941. Though Robinson Jeffers is not by any means a Christian poet, and his notion of "inhumanism" subject to serious reservations, Robinson evinces a deep natural religiosity. His poem expresses, I think, the stoic resignation required by the Christian as he sees the current state of the American Republic and the distasteful and unholy trinity at its head, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. After achieving calm, the Christian should turn to the Cross and pray.

Be Angry At The Sun

That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.

Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.

You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar. You are far
From Dante's feet, but even farther from his dirty
Political hatreds.

Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)