• Home
  • Blog
  • Current
  • Archives
  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
  • Contests
  • About
    • Contact
    • Submit
    • Media Kit
    • Resources
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

DappledThings.org

A quarterly journal of ideas, art, and faith

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

An Advent Poem

Ellen RM Toner

In these last few days before Christmas, I don’t have any more spare time than the rest of you! Rather than giving you a full-length blog post, then, I asked a friend, J.B. Toner, if I could share a poem he wrote last year. You might know his name already, as he’s had a few things published in our quarterly issues.

N.B. He had some words and phrases from such notables as Keats, Shakespeare and Chesterton that he wanted to work in, so if you notice a few bits and pieces sounding familiar, that’s probably what you’re hearing. Also, take note of the unusual rhyme scheme he’s got goin’ on with the extra rhyme added into the second and fourth lines of each stanza, which, in addition to lending a tighter sense of unity to the poem, gives a hint of that mid-line Anglo-Saxon poetic caesura that all us Beowulf fans love so well. When I asked him about the pattern, he said it’s something Tolkein does, and that he hasn’t seen it anywhere else. So, with all that preamble, enjoy!

ADVENT

The Magi, with sagacious eye,
Afar descried and came to Him
With kingly gifts, on camels high,
Entrammelled by a brightness dim.

They sought a sweet and merry morn
Through lands forlorn and paths unseen,
And night was thrice night overhead
Through deserts red, incarnadine.

Locutioners of stars and signs
From heathen times, now called away
To know a new and tiny God,
Their hearts, though awed, in disarray.

What kept them on their wintry road,
Though doubt forbode and toils were hurled? –
Faith’s inexpugnability,
Which yearns to see a brave new world!

So let the martial lullaby
They heard on high still calm our souls
And rouse our minds for penitence,
Till merriments have made us whole.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
DT Subscribe

Filed Under: Deep Down Things, Poetry

Avatar

About Ellen RM Toner

After teaching for three years at a classical liberal arts school, Ellen began full-time work as a writer and editor in 2012. She has degrees in Literature and Publishing from the University of Dallas and the University of Denver, respectively. She lives with her husband, writer J.B. Toner, in rural New Hampshire.

Comments

  1. AvatarDebra says

    December 20, 2013 at 10:36 pm

    Lovely poem!
    Merry Christmas!

Mary, Queen of Angels 2020

Purchase Featuring nonfiction from Joshua Hren, fiction from Jennifer Marie Donahue and Rob Davidson and the winners and honorees of the Bakhita Prize in Visual Arts.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)

Newsletter

Sign up to receive the latest news from Dappled Things.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Have you enjoyed our content online or in print during the past year?

Dappled Things needs the support of its readers over and above the cost of subscriptions in order to continue its work.

Help us share the riches of Catholic art and literature with our impoverished culture by donating to Dappled Things.

Archives

Home
Blog
Current
Shop
Subscribe
About

Copyright © 2021 Dappled Things · Staff Forum · Log in

Graphics by Dominic Heisdorf · Website by Up to Speed

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.