Rosemarie Rowley (1942-)
The Humours of the Seminarian's House
1Not in our fall, O Lord, but in Your grace
2Is living done each day instead of dying;
3A portion of our day makes up time's race
4And absolute grandeur is signified by trying.
5Mass and energy go far in Einstein's case
6Which soon would doom us for our knowledge, prying
7And in the wide corridor of eternal face
8Mankind's truth is seen, a shadow lying.
9Therefore, show us the way our human purpose lies
10To find You, fathomless 'neath interfusing skies,
11Each path Your glory, each word Your domain,
12And language whole with Your intention plain
13For if to love You is our dearest destiny,
14Let us first understand You, right in infinity.
Notes
1] Seminarian: trainee priest or Jesuit.
5] Energy equals mass, multiplied by the speed of light, squared: e=m*(c*c), an allusion to the atom bomb.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Copyright © Rosemarie Rowley 2007. Not to be republished without permission of the poet.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Rosemarie Rowley, The Broken Pledge and Other Poems
([Dublin]: Tallaght, 1985): 31.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2007
Recent editing: 1:2007/3/20
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdeeffgg
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