The Role of an Old Woman: A Study of Edith Sitwell's Final Persona

ion from the elements of rea l ity. Through this seemingly orderly set o f appearances man can better see nature as process , o r can create f or himse lf , the i llus ion of process. The process is one of a developmentally as cending ser i es of re b ir ths which bring men ever neare r to godhood. The prob l e m is that man stubbornly re ffus es to acknowledge his go dho o d , and insists on grat i fy i ng his petty greeds thr ough his wars. But eve n within the de human i z ing elements of the ca p italist traditio n , man might know ... the unborn God in the human heart Know for a moment a 11 s ubl i mi ties . ... Old peo p l e a t even ing sitting in the doorways See in a broken window o f the slum The Burning Bush reflected, and the crumb For the starving bird is part of the broken Body Sf Christ Who f orgives usHe with the bright Hair The S un Whose Body was s p ilt on our fields to bring us harvest. (p. 302) The above quote is from the poem 'Holiday , 11 which represents the i dyllic potentialities o f earthly love f or Chr is t. Dives and Lazarus are joined once again in t his spiritual harvest. However, the Harv es t " sec tion o f the poem "An Old Woman!! has not developed t he v i ew which the l ater 1!Ho l iday'r poem has arr i ved at . In nHarvest n we are still struggl ing with the basics. The primal Cause (ca p i tal i zed because it is Goa), the process of nature, Go d wi thin man , are all conce pts which are i n an incipient sta g e o f development. A fairly swift clarification of these points mi ght be arrived at, i f we see Dame Ed i th as a post-Freud i an who has incorporated within her being the belief that pr i mal desires de termine will, a nd also note that these primal desires are natura l aspects o f the blood, wh ich holds within it the 33 vestigiaLr...e ma"ins of the heat of Go d 1 s first creative i mpuls e . Fbr is not the blood the d ivine , the animal heat That is not fire derived from the solar ray? And does not the beast surpass all elements In power , thr ough the heat and wisdom of the blood ( p . 258 ) Dame Edith is mak ing a d ire ct reference t o her read i ng of Harvey . In the f or thcoming long quote many of Dame Edith 1 s thematic allusions will have the ir source made apparent . The bloo d , when present in the veins as part o f the body , a genera tive part , t oo, and endowed with soul , being the soul's i mmed iate instr ument, and pr i mary seat ... the blood, seeming als o to have a share o f another divine body a nd being suffused with d i v i ne animal heat, suddenly acquires remarkable and most excellent powers, and i s analo gous to the essence of stars . In so far as i t i s s p i r i t , i t is the hearth, the Ves t a , the household div inity , the innate heat, the sun of the micr ocosm, t he fire of Pla to ; the inherent nature of that spirit corresponds to the essence of the stars, so is there a spirit, or certain force , inhere n t in the blood, act ing super iorly t o the power o f the elements.l So now we can read i ly see t he s our ce o f Dame Edith's bel i ef i n the d i v in i ty of the blood, the generative n a ture o f the bl oo d , a nd the i mporta nce o f the instinctual animal peats Wh i ch dr i ve us toward our fate . The div i nity of the blood, 1Ed ith S i twell , Collected _Po ems , p . 451 . 34 which corresponds to the divinity of the earth's fate, leaves us in a very secure metaphysical posit io n . Man can now stand next to the angels in the hierarchy of being, and rest assured that his actions, if they are not corrupted by the pettiness of greed , wi ll be divinely correct. So we, ruled by those laws, see their f ulfillment. And I who stood in the grave -c lothes of my flesh Unutterably spotted with the world's woes Cry, 1 I am Fire . See, I am the bright gold That shines like a flaming fire in the night t he goldtra ined planet, The laughing heat of the Sun that was born from the darkness Returning to darkness-I am fe cundity , harvest. 1 (p . 259) A note of desperation is in these lines . Th is is truly emotional statement . The divinity that Harvey expresses cannot be seen by Dame Edith in the cool prosaic light of rational thought. Her reason is eclipsed by her manifold fears and anxieties, and this statement rings to the unanswer ing heavens her will to believe . But beyond the e motionalism, she is literally only pos iting the affirma tion of full maturity, and its possibilities of renewed lif e within the spiritual Spring . Dame Edith ends the "Harvest 11 section with a fairly conventional Pentecostal image. The universal language of the Bread ( O Thou who are not broken , or divide d Thoug h who art eaten , but like the Burn i ng Bush Art not consumed -Thou Bread of Men and Angels) The Seraphim rank on rank of the ripe wheat Gold bearded thunders and hierarchies of heaven Roar from the earth : 10ur Christ i s arisen, He co mes to give a sign from the Dead .' (p . 25960) 35 Her fa ith i n Chr is t i s the answer to her e motionalism. In Chris t there is the securi ty o f t he a g es , the securi ty of the bene f icent unknown .


iii THES I S ABS TRACT
The year 1940 marked a rad ic al chang e in the poet ics of name Edith S itwe ll (1887 -1964 ). Prev  and it sometimes seems as if her later poe try is a great optimistic rationalization meant to ease her cosmic anx iety.
Most of the poetry discussed herein will be seen through the narrow vision of directed analyses. Therefore, allusions whether historical, biographical, Biblica l or othe rwise will sormtimes be passed over for the sake of brev ity.  ( 11 La z a r us is the poor man, the maker of br ead who is also the l iving wheat, the murdered ma n round whom the forces of redemption most powerfully play ." ) I used the symbol thus.
I used the symbol , also , as that of poverty , now mo ved into a new tomb of useles s g o ld , in which, until th e fires o f love a n d spiritual rebir th reach h i m, he will lie as dead as i n his tomb o f mud .... Lazarus the te rr ible i deal of useles s suffering . Lazarus, the hero o f death and mud, ta k i n g the p lac e in men 's minds o f the He r o o f Life Who was bo rn in a stable.2 As can be seen by th is example, t h e symbolism of Ed i t h 2 Ibid ., p . x i vi ii.
Sitwell is not the esoteric, excessively personal, s elfindulg ent symbolis m o f the e g o t ist. Ra t her it is the universally acknowledge d symbolis m of west e r n cu l ture .
I t is the symbolism o f known , and pre -tested quantities, which are no t only the carria g e of the reli g ious mysteries she is presenting , but mo re emphatical ly , the symbolis m l ies at the he ar t o f re lig ious mys tery its elf . As we h ave see n i n the Dame Edith thoug ht that the war was c aused by a spiritual blindness. It is Dame Ed i th ' s g oal to return s i g ht to the blind.
The war , howeve r , is only the external phenomenon which is inextricably related to the internal phenomenon of the mind/ body/ so ul complex of ma n. The war i s the outward manifestation of a host o f false concepts . These concepts are l earn ed , are instilled a n d inculc a ted into us at a very early age . It is these bas i c misconceptions which Da me Ed i th 3 Ib id . , p . xx . tries to remedy .
In nTh e Poet Laments the Com ing of Old · n Age, Dame Edith states, I see the child ren running out of school ; They are taug ht that Goodness means a blinding hood Or is heape d by Time l ike the hump on an a g ed back , And that Evil can be cast l i ke an old ra g 5 And Wisdom caug ht like a hare and held in the g olden sack Of the heart .... Bup I am one who must bring back sig ht to the bl ind . 4- The e cho es of Yeats and Blake , and the 1 8 th century me thodology of pe r son i f ic at ion by capitalization are obvious. The i mportance of this q uot e lies in its stat ement of r ole.
Dame Ed ith is the g iver of sig ht . No e idetic sig h t t his .
Dame Ed i t h sees reality throug h the mists o f preconcept ion, but in a more universal sense it mi g ht be considered that all thou g ht is based upon preconce p tion .
The subjectivity with which we v iew the world is a product o f our conc ep tions and preconceptions co ncerning the world . Conceptions and preconceptions are the basis for a bstraction a nd symbol . Da me Edith is the g i ver of a sig ht which s ees t he d i v ine co r r espondence o f all thing s . She sees ·thing s not as the y are but as symbo l s . She b e lie v e s that the re is a v ery r eal divine plan unfold ing in the world o f ma tt er , a n d she must l oo k be neat h t h e v i s i ble t o f ind t h e esse nc es o f eart h ly life .
Tgerefo re , we will find very fe w naturalistic i ma g es within the lat er po e t ry . Wha t we wil l f ind are symbols whi c h are the embo d i me n t o f conc ep t s . Th e s ymbols are co r r esponde nt, 4rbid . , p . 3 0 9 . He nc efo r th a ll q uo ta tions fr om E dith Sitwell 1 s po e t ry will b e f o l lowed by the page numb er fr om this ed i t i on .. cumulative and hopefully unive r sal. Her reawakening of the science of correspondences, showing the essential qua li ties of life, is the sig ht which she gives to the blind warr ing world.

6
The use of symbolism has been seen by Read, F ra z er and Symons as a reaction to the f ea r of the u nknown, and t here may be a d irect r elationshi p between Dame E dith's use of symbolic ima g ery, and the be g inning o f the wa r which broug ht to her doorstep the meaning o f mortality. A quote from Herbert Read will be g in our examination o f this possible relations hi p .
We know, from survivals of such geometric types o f art among abori g inal tribes today, that the e motion which inspires this non-re presentatio nal tendenc y is fear-fear of the unknown, fear of events for which they have no causal explanation. We suppose, o n t h e basis of analo g ous feelings of our own, that neoli t hic man was aff 1 icted with cos mic anxiety , a f ear o f existence or being.
Fea r breeds secrecy, a desir e to communicate in a language that is not understoo d by the uninitiated-by the hos t ile forces.
Once we assume the n e ed for a secret l a n g uage of this kind, the n particular motifs within the grarrima r of orna ment m i gh t acquire symbolic meaning. 5 Read is speaking of the be g inning s of abstr act ar t , b ut there seems to be mo r e than a s uper f ic ia 1 sim ilarity betwe en the early cre ators of the ge o me tric pots a n d the f e a r s whi c h caused Dame Edith to create he r later poetry. Symbo l ism might be considered as a respo n se to fear.
In so me wa ys it may be a veil d r opped ove r the r ealit y o f our f ears so that Books ' 5Herbert Read, Icon and Idea (New York: Schoc ke n they mi ght be more eas ily assimilated. With reference to symbolis m, Arthur Symons conc ludes , 7 Our only chance, in th i s world , of a complete ha pp iness l ies in the measure of our success in shutting our eyes o f the mind , and deaden ing its sense of hearing, and dull ing the keenness o f its apprehension of the unknown.6 Dame Edith has a cknowledged her re a ding s of Symons and Read, and it is their prem is e that symbolism and abstraction are re movals from real i ty . The shunning of real i stic natural i sm is an attempt to resolve the common fears of the unknown, as wel l as the g laring knowledge of real mortal i ty . Symbolism is a response to reality . It is mi nd expanding in tha t i t allows for alo g ical correspondences to be considered, b ut it is mind limiting because of its attitude towards perce p tual fact . Both Symons and Read consider symbo l ism a n e cessary step in the understanding of the huma n condition, and Symons, Fraz er and Read agr e e t h at it is cosmic anxiety that d r ives ma n to pra gmatica l ly dea l with the myst er i e s of life throu g h s ymbolism .
This view of symbolism as at least a partial limit a tion o f consciousness is not the only way to vi e w s ymbolism, bec a us e a s it cons t r icts t he n a tur a lis t ic v ision o f real i ty so also do e s it e xpand man ' s ability to come to g r i p s with the unalte rabl e fa cts of life . It is the expansio n o f consciousne ss t h r oug h symbo l i sm t h a t is imp o rta n t , fo r by way of symbo l i sm ma n c a n e i t her s ee o r cre a t e a wo rka b le proper perspe ctive to man, and in order to do this she must find her own perspective. Her perspective is that of an old woman, and as such she sees the wor ld t hroug h the concept o f trans i ency. All t h i ng s decay whethe r liv i ng or dea d .
Dame Ed i th wi ll s h ow us that de ca y i s a proce s s o f g e ne ra t ive l i f e . Deca y i s an act of c r ea t i o n ; Da me Ed i t h pres ents u s with the d e c ay/ reb i rth , destru ct ion/ resurr e c tio n the s i s .
However , i n th i s po em the only conso l atio n t hat is g i ve n f o r death i s that i t ta kes a l l .
Not only i s her po etr y a re s p ons e t o he r cos mic anxie t y, bu t also the pers o na (used as a s y no nym for ro l e ) she assume s i s als o a respo nse . Howeve r , h e r r o le as a n o ld .... I t c a n n ever be ca u g h t . Tho u g h I br i ng ba c k s i g h t to t h e bl ind , My seed o f folly h as g o ne , t h a t c ould teac h me to bear That t h e gold -s i newed bo dy that h ad the bloo d of all t he earth in i ts v e i ns Has chang e d to an old ra g of the outwo r n world And t he great heart that the first morning made This und e r l y ing essence of reb i rth is an a cquis ition from the Demeter my th . Demeter waits mournful ly i n the darkness of winter for a rebirth. Rebirth and g eneration are caus ed by the co mb ination of the male (the sun/ Christ) and the fe ma le (the earth/ the se ed within the earth) . The old man as we shall see, is the seed within the earth waiting wo ' for spr ing to be reborn.
Demeter is the personification of the corn, but th is simple fact reveals nothing of the co mplexity inhe rent in the myths associated with Demeter and her d aughter Pe r sephone .
Sir James Frazer discusses thoroughly these corn goddesses Thus far I ha ve f o r the mo st pa rt assumed an i dent i ty of nature between Deme ter and Persephone , the d i vine mothe r a nd daughter pe rso nify ing the corn in i ts do uble a s pec t o f the seed corn o f t he last yea r and the ripe of this, a n d I po i nted ou t t hat this view of the s ubstant ial unity o f mot her and daug h ter is born out by the portraits in Greek art , which are o ften so alike as to be ind isting uisaable . 7 Their d uality o f being eas i ly develops into a myt hic repres ent at io n o f d eath and resurrection . Persephone annu ally dies in order t o be reborn . Demeter, the r i pe corn, likew ise i s sown in the earth to be rebo r n in the spr i n g .
In t he next chapter we will be deali n g wi t h a poe m n amed "Inv ocation . 1

'
The attitude o f Demeter, the wai ting mo the r , i s t h e do mi nant r o l e i n the po em . It sets the stag e f o r the bui l d -u p of the complex a n thropomorph which will be the old woma n . Dame Ed i th i s the old wo man; she is sitting wa i ting , a nd i t is Deme te r that is the ins p i rat ional image of her bei ng .
7S ir James Frazer , The Golden Bou g h, 3rd ed . (London : Macmil la n and Co . , 1925 ), VI!, 88-89 . The dark is the winter, the war, the wait, but with i n th is dark are the seeds of rebirth . As Marx said, · 11 the seeds of destruction come from with i n . ·n The wint er will be defeated and vanqui shed from the earth , but until then the dark must be submitted t o.
It is a natural phenomena, a tra g ic pur ga tive that must take its cours e , destroy itself and retur n to t h e c rea tive g e nerat i ve i mp u l s es o f nature .
Wi thin Dame Ed ith' s c osmolo gy war i s t h e s p i r itua l wi nte r .  The supernatural be ing s whose ex is tence is taken for granted in them (the rit es) are spirits rather than de ities : t h e i r f unct ions are l i mited t o certain well defined departme nt s o f nature : their names are general, like the Barley -mo ther , the Old Woman , the Ma i den , not pro per n ame s like Demeter , Pers ephone , Dionys ius. The ir ge n er ic at t r ibutes are k nown, but the ir i ndiv i d u al histories a n d c hara cters are n o t the s u bje c t of myths . For t hey ex ist in classes rather than as individuals , a n d the members o f ea ch cla ss are indisting uishab le . For example , every fa r m h as i ts Corn-mot her , o r i ts Old Woman, or its Maiden ; but eve~y Corn-mother is much like every other Co r n-mother , and so wit h t he Old Wo ma n and Ma i dens ·. 2 By keep i ng t h e co rn goddess as a general i z ed be ing , Dame Edith allows fo r a pos s i ble rac i al clos e ness , and also frees hers elf fr om the part i culars of the prec i se Demeter myth within which there mi g ht be limi tat io ns to which Dame Ed i th do e s no t want to conform . Be i n g a 11 g o lden woman 11 1 i k e " the co rn godde ss " l e ave s Dame E dith fr ee to cre ate an individua listic persona , rather than fallin g into an alre ady existing one . No l onger c a n one man be supe r io r to ano t her , f o r in dea t h ' " J udas g i ve s a g a i n the c hi ld is h k i ss/That onc e his mother k ne w, 11 ( p . 254) . This is t h e u l t i ma t e humi l i t y . Only a f emin ine non-egoc e nt r ic c apa c i t y c o uld see J u d as a s a n innoc ent child.
It is an exceedingly powerful i mage . For not only is humanitarian is m carr i ed to a Chr istian extreme , but this ima ge is a complete refutation o f black and wh ite thinking . The mental view that i s the embod i ment of hum ility is the eradication o f the concep t of black . The re is always a spark of g old within the dark . Within the dark the re is always the g oo dness that is l i fe .
With in "Invocat ionn Dame Edith has become both pa st 22 and present. F i rst she was "I'" who was once a golden wo man , and then she became ' "I, a golden woman · "; th is shift should not be seen as a simple t i me sh i ft technique . Dame Edith is creating a complex anthropomorph , and in so doing she must become her past and present at once. Each indiv idual role whether o f the pa st, present or future are as so many heads, arms and legs to a zoomorph. The benefits of th is technique are seen by the way she can represent at once both the sexlessness of evening , and the fec u ndity of spring .
In ge neral, Dame Ed i th is working with an old cl iche which finds a relationsh ip between age and wisdom. Her age (evolut io nary and present ) i s important beca us e it represents a backlog of experiential data both mythic and otherwise from which she mi g ht draw her wisdom. Wit h re gard to her use of evol u t io nary wisdom s h e writes, But i f I were to return to that which ex ists 1 below the thres hold o f a wareness , like a sun below the hori z o n ' (to q uot e Dr . Jung ), I mi g h t remember that the hair o f Judas, ac co rding to legend , was yellow , a nd that he has often been pa inted i n a yello w dres s. I mi g ht also h ave a v isio n of the silent advance of the yellow banners o f terrible As i an hordes adva ncing acro ss a vast desert . 3 23 Dame Edith ' s awareness o f the evolu t ionary knowled ge s is the aspe ct of consciousness that separates her from ord i nary man .
In spea ki n g o f h er earl i er poe ms she wri tes , In many of thes e poems the subject is t h e g r o wth of consciousness . S o met i me s it is l i ke that o f a person who h as always b e e n blind and who , s u dde nly e ndowed with sight , must learn to see ; or it i s t h e c ry of the waiting , watching world, where everyth ing we see is a symbol of someth ing beyond, to the cons cious n ess that is ye t bur i ed in this earth sle ep . 4 This pas sa ge i s ta ke n fro m the "Notes 11 which preface her volume o f Collected Poems . I t was wr it ten many years after her early p oe ms which ce ased their out pour ing circa 192 9 .
It was wr i tt e n fro m the standpoint of the artist who created her later po etry . It i s in he r later po etry that she is trying to correct ma n's s i g ht . I t i s the later pGet ry that assau lts the meta p hys ical consc iousness . I t need not be pointed ou t that the i mages wi t hin t h ese pa ss ages bear a marked r es embla nc e t o the poe try d i s cussed in this section .
As a n old wo ma n she h as the wisdo m of a ge , as a Her poems keep revolving about the same patterns .
Dame Edith wa i ts , as the old wo man wai ts , as the see d waits.
Po et ically , also, we are revolv ing . Dame Edith writes, Thoug h the dust, the shining race r , o ver take me , I, t oo, was a g o lden woman like thos e that walk In t he f i elds o f the he avens: but am now g rown old And must sit by the fire and watch the fire g row cold-A country Fate whose spool is the house h old ta sk . Yet still am I loved by t he s un, and st ill a m part Gf earth.
In the evenings b ringing ho me the workers, Bringing the Wanderer home and the dead child, The child unbo rn and never t o be conc e i ved , Home to the mo ther ' s breast , I sit by the f i re Where the seed o f gold drops dead as the kettle simmers And I wait f or my Wande rer t o come home to rest-Cove red with earth as if he had been work ing Among the h appy g ardens, the holy fiel ds Where the bread of mank ind r i p e ns i n t he stillness.
(p . 256) The ol d woman is now part icipating within the framework of a wife i mage . She is t he wif e waiting for t he hus band to c o me ho me from work . This is an i mpo rtant addit io n to the old woma n complex of concepts, because as a wife she can much more easily represent the re generative po ss ibilities o f wo mbman-hoo d .
The wif e i s a common ico n , and it is throug h this icon that Dame Ed it h presents u s with a more abstrac t d iffi culty .
The old woman is a wife and also a mother She wi l l take the pos i tio n o f wi fe/mother/ nu rse even t houg h her att e mp t s to br ing abou t a reb i rth ar e f uti l e . Th is is the extremity of Dame Edith 1 s skepticism . She sus p ects that she might be nursing dead issues, but her f aith and be l ie f require that she perform her role .
It must be considered that if the ch i ld were actually dead there would be no reason to bring him int o the poetry at all . By bringing this i ma g e to t he poetry, Da me Edith makes it a living i ma g e . This view is substantiated i n a later poem, 11 A Mother to Her Dead Child . 11 The earth puts forth its sprays, the heart its wa rmth, And your hands p ush back the dark that i s your nurse, Feel for my heart as in the days, before your birth . O Sun of my life, return to the waiting earth Of y our mother ' s breast, the heart, the empty arms .
(p . 27 9 ) The child is a parallel force to spring . The child is the ob ject of the old woman 1 s yearning . The old wo man has g iven b i rth, to this child, now she wa i ts for its return . The c h i ld introduced in this poe m is a living child, but it is absent from the earthly realm, and when present at t he end of the poem, th e chi ld is full of fa t e arfu l sorrow . S o the living child and the dead child are one . They co mpose an image of the loss of innocent love . The old wo man wai t s f or the return of innocent love.
Yet one will return to the lost men, Whose heart is the Sun of Reason, dispelling the shadow That was born with no eye to shed tears -bring ing peace to the lust And pruriency of the Ape ; f rom the human hea r t's s ublimity And t enderness teaching the dust that it is holy , Bring i ng love l i ke the daily bread, li k e the lig ht at morning . The old woman has ass ume d an aspect of the sun. As he was the orig inal lover a nd blesser of the world, so is she now the active blesser of the world. No longer is she trapped in the r ole o f receptacle accepter , now she is t h e active Party, blessing earth as if she were the pr iestes s of the sun.

II
The l!Harvest 11 section of 11 An Old Woman n begins with the same refraining "I, an old womann tha t we have seen so many time s before, but th is t i me there i s no real development of the thematic psychological backg round that the old wo man manifests. 11 Harvest 11 is the fruition of life ; it is the import ance of being . At all other stages man is e i the r growing towards so mething, or de g enerating from something .
Harves t is the goal of Fate . As we sha l l see in this Chapter , nHarves t ' 11 br i;:-igs to the fore the importa nee and benefice nee of Fate , as wel l as the ultimate orderliness of nature.
Dame Edith believes that we are determined by Fate ; Fa t e i s determined by the Gods, and most important l y she wants to believe that the Gods have us i n their ca r e . This is t he system; the o r derl iness although slightly beyond our ken, is there. Dame Edith's creation of an o rder ly universe el iminates some of the fearfulness from the unknown, the infi n ite. Orderly universes, like symbolism , only allow unde rstandable cate g ories thereby alleviating cos mic anx ie ty .
Also, a predetermined fatalism is a metho d of putting God into the mund anity and tragedy of everyd a y life. Pred etermination allows i mportance a n d meaning to be seen within the context of daily triviality. It is t h is externa l importanc e of be ing, that Dame Ed ith seems t o requ ire . However, just because a system of predeterm ina tion is b e i ng at, i f we see Dame Ed i th as a post-Freud i an who has incorporated within her being the belief that pr i mal desires determine will, a n d also note that these primal desires are natura l aspects o f the blood, wh ich holds wit hin it the 33 vestigiaLr...e ma"ins of the heat of Go d 1 s first creative i mp uls e .
Fbr is not the blood -the d ivine , the animal heat That is not fire -derived from the solar ray? And does not the beast sur pass all elements In power , thr ough the heat and wisdom of the blood ( p . 25 8 ) Dame Edith is mak ing a d ire ct reference t o her read i n g of Harvey .
In the f or thc oming long quote many of Dame Edith 1 s thematic allusions will have the ir source made apparent .
The bloo d , when present in the veins as part o f the body , a genera tive part , t oo, and endowed with sou l , being the soul's i mmed iate inst r ument, and pr i mary seat ... the blood, seeming als o to have a share o f another divine body a nd being suffused with d i v i ne animal heat, suddenly acquires remarkable and most excelle nt powers, and i s analo gous to the essence of stars .
In so far as i t i s s p i r i t , i t is the hearth, the Ves t a , the household div init y , the innate heat, the sun of the micr ocos m, t h e fire of Pla to ; the inherent nature of that spirit co rre sponds to the essence of the stars, so is there a spirit, or certain force , inhere n t in the blood, act ing super iorly t o the power o f the eleme nts.l (p . 263) God is the g old nature that ca nnot be corrupted by death.
God is love, and love is immortal.
The conclusions of the above quote s ee m rather contra dictory when one considers Euryd ic e ' s my thic story . But Dame Edith has chang ed all that, Eurydice ha s risen, and when we mee t her in the poem she is onc e a g a in wa lking the autumnal world , wa tching the mourning sowers bury Persep hone beneath the soil .
Euryd ice has been reborn; the eart h is he a vy wit h rebirth.
As the earth is heavy with the lion -strong Sun When he has fallen , with his hot days and rays, But the l i ps , the heart, should be dust -dun , death -cold From that long night ... and so I feared to hold That heart that came warm from the g rave .... Afraid Of that etern i ty of love , I laid Death 's earth upon her heart; for this Dead man in my dress dared not kiss Her ... But where are the seeds of the Un i versal Fire To burn the roots of Death in the wor ld 's cold heart? The earth of my heart was broken and gaped low As the fires beneath the equator of my v eins. And I thought the seeds o f F ire should b e let loose Like the solar rains -The light that lies deep i n t he heart of the rose; And that the bloom from the fallen spring of the world Would come again to the cheek grown famine -white as winter frost-Would come again to the heart whose cour a ge is l os t From hunger . When in this world Will the cold heart take fire?
( p . 324) Dame Edith is possessed of a heart that is cold and alone.
The fire, the light, the bloom that were expected, ca me not .
But i n the summers o f the past these things did come ; th ere was a time when she had her love, and they were both born anew together.
In such a heat of the earth, under The red bough, the Colossus of rubies the first husbandman and gravedigger, the red Adam, Dug from the earth of his own nature , the corn ef f i gy Of a l ong -b ur i e d c ountry g o d , e nc r us t ed wi th earth -v i r t ues , An d broug ht t o a n e w bir t h The anc i ent wi s do m h i d i n g beh i nd h e a t a n d l aug hte r , De ep -r oo ted i n Dea t h ' s earth .   of life with i n her , and she is kissed by t h e great gold Sun .
This k i ss planted on her chee k aff i rms and strengthens her be ing ; she now k nows that !!go ld Combs lay/ In t he cold roc k " (p . 333 ), a n d that t h e re is l i fe i n t he i nanimate , ... He co mes to t h e cr i minal who se nature Was cripple d before his birth by a new g ravita t ion That change d the solar system of the heart To a univ e rse rei g ned over by deformation .... None is condemned .. .. Then why should we lie loveless? He will clothe u s a g a i n i n g old and a little l o ve . But how sho u ld P ity stand between y ou a nd me ! The Dev il sunder us from our ma tes , and Go d Knits us to g ether Until nor ma n no r dev i l could tell lover fro m lo ver In our heave n of damnat ion! Could t hese s under our c l ay Or the seas of our blood? As well mi g ht they par t the f ire s That would burn the bottom of He ll .... But there is no Hell We have kissed it away .
(p . 337 ) The end i ng of "Th e Bee Ora cles 11 juxt apos ed the ato mic bo mb against salvat ion. However, as her theories work the i r way to fr uitio n , even the darker aspects of love are inco r porated with i n her metaphys ic al system of Christian g enerative love . The

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The old woma n has rema ined remarkably constant.
She is still lonely for the affirmation of a Christian rebirth, and she i s still hoping that through change she wi ll become wise.
Here we see a mo re pers ona l tone work i ng than was use d wit hin the old woman/Demeter config uration. Demeter by her position knew that rebirth is inevitable . The old woman without this role is not quite sure, but neverthe less she repeats her belief as if assuring herse} f that what she wants to be, will be.
So, Lady , you and I And the o ther wre cks of the heart, left by the Lion Of Love, shall know all trans mutations, each de g ree ! Our apish skeletons, clothed wi th rubies by the light Are not less br i ght In the Sun's eye than is the Rose ... 0nd youth, and we, Are but waves of T i me ' s sea .
Folly and wisdo m have dust equal -sweet, And i n the porphyry shade 0f this world's noon The Poor seem D ives, burning in his ro bes bright as the rose -Such transmutations even the brief moment made .
( p . 345) Transmutation, transformation and change is still the rule of nature.
The old wo man is in process . Although she appears and feels old, she is i n the process of being made anew .
Transmutat i on i s taking pla c e in her even within this v ery moment . This is the answer she desires. She needs to know that she will be reborn anew, again .

IV
The Venus/Rose /Chr ist imagery is climaxed in the poem "The Canticle of the Rose . ·n He re the Rose cha nts its song, The The hump on the dwarf, the mountain on the plain, The fixed red o f t he rose, and the ra inbow' s red, The fires of the heart, the wande ring pl an~t's pain -All l o ss , all gain -Yet will the world rema i n !

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Am the paramour in the last bed of love, and mine , t he k i ss That g ives eternity. I a m Pr incess of Darkness . Yet the huge g old world, With all plantations , power of the gold growth that shall be the bread of men, Ar is e from the toil of the small , the mi g hty Worm beneath the earth, The blind , all seeing power at her g reat wo rk of deat h and of rebirt h . In th i s s ma l l quote r e lat ionshi ps of g reat ma g n i t u de a r e be i n g crea t ed . F i rst , t he Dead Man i s speak i n g to t h e g h osts within the vine branches, i . e. p ost -worm huma n essences . Man has seen this, and knows that he too is potentia l fert ilizer, and that he too will become a ghost i n the bough of a tree .
By present ing the Dead Man as something se parate fro m herself, Dame Edith has put herself upon the road o f life .
As a mortal , her ex pec tanc y is to participate in this fe rtiliz i n g pro c ess, and she feels the loneliness of mortality , t he cosmic anxiety of her posit ion . She e mpa thizes with the Dead Man when he states, 1~n d I was alone with Life -the Naked Manrr (p . 384) . L i fe is the naked man ; Meister Eckhardt has told us tha t to see God we must str i p God naked of things. The Naked Man is God , and to be alone with Him, is to suffer cosmic anx iety . When Christ was alone with God he thought himself f orsaken, and Dame Edith fears that she will be f o rsake n .
To escape fr o m the anxiety produced by the loneliness of the knowledge of the Naked God, Dame Ed ith reverts to her conce pt ual materni ty, whi ch was the foundation of the Demeter myth . In a p re vious quote , the Dead Man claims to be li ke the worm in holiness because t he y have t he same "ho ly mothe r . 11 The holy mother seems t o be a new addition to Dame Ed it h ' s l ater poetry , but I don't think that i t is. This is the po etry that was written i n the five years prev ious t o her convers ion. The holy mother, therefore , is probab ly an ob - (p . 385 ) The mother/wo mb i mage is i nextr i cably re l ated t o s e curi ty .
Dame Ed ith h ad earl i er g i ven herself the role of the eart h mother , this r o le has been transferred to the holy mothe r .
The holy mother is representative of security not because she shields anyone from evil , but be c a us e of the ge n erat i ve pr inci ples related to motherhood. And the golden nodding nurse that we call Eve And evening, sighed, ' The first and final Adam, he who is one with the i mmense Ceres And all · day broke the gold body Of the g iantess as in love . Come t o my l i ps -the l ong horizon -Cold wi th the serpents ' b u r i ed wi sdom , t h at has known the azoic Continents , the secrets and ni g ht haunted jewels of the catafalques! Come I will seal your eyes that they shall no more wee p No more behold anot her . Once , at your g rief

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The unfr a u g ht sea would s we 11 , and the unsoug ht d i amonds R ise with your tears . Edit h pre sents herself as Eve , t h e metapho r i cal ragp ic ker .
This i s par t o f he r self humiliat ion .
' What i s it kno c ks at t h at t o mb my heart? Is i t the g raved i gger , The f inal Adam? There was one k noc ked so : He wou ld not know me now. F or all Time 1 s f i lth , the dress I stole fr om the hab it at io n of t h e Dead , Hides me -a body cold as the wind -blown v ines , And the sad sapphire bone shrunk by Time ' s f i res To this small ape ish t hi ng . 1 1 Ah., how was Death Now, k i ndly close , so I I i nfer i or t o Age , That y ou shou ld be untrue? My one compa nion, holds me Forge t yo u r k i ss . I do not me an -I have never meant -that we must avo id the everyday wo rld . Re as on and Tr anquility were the companion a ngels o f Wordsworth as he wa l ked t h r ough the e veryday wo rld made sple nd i d by the l~g ht o f a g en ius that i ll uminated but d i d not transform . Commo n spee ch a nd common exper i e nc e were t here , bu t all made rad i ant a nd u nfo rge tta ble by i ns p iration . There wer e days -the " Intima tions of I mmo rtality fr om Early Childhood" wa s such a day-when the pente co stal F lames c ame , for a moment, t o our commo n speech . The ord inary objec ts o f l i fe became supernat u ral . The commo n c ela n d i ne was st i ll t he common celand ine , but it was also a star . For Words wo rth h ad the warmth o f the ear th and of the human heart ; and tha t gen i us which was rat her of the huma n heart than of t h e soul had take n all the chi ll fr om reas on .
' The eart h and every common s i ght To me d i d se e m Apparel l ed i n celestial l i g ht . 1 Poetry i s , i ndeed , t he de i f ica t ion of real i ty , and o f i ts p u rposes , among others, is to show t hat t h e d i mens io ns o f man are , as S i r Arthu r Edd ington sa i d , 1 Halfway between those of an atom and a star. 1 4 Althoug h Words wo rth was a much more naturalist ica lly representationa l po et both in his i magery and p_o_ eti c theory , the ma in theme of his po etry , na t ural divinity , is also the basis of Dame Edith 1 s poetry . Through h e r meander ing s o f symbo l ic self , throug h role after r ole , Dame Ed i t h ha s made the commonness of he r own be i ng d ivine .
Sh e has been t he old woma n, Demeter, and hersel f , as an ind e pende ntly d i v i ne substanc e beneath the eyes of t he compass io nate Chr is t . She c rea ted o f hersel f a rel i g ious sp i r i t ; and l i ke Wo rds worth she showed t he divinity of her own commonality .
It has taken Dame Edith a lifetime t o res olve her feel ings conc ern ing Wo rds wo rth , but in so doing she als o reso lve d h er att i tudes concerning l i fe . Wo rds wo rth was more a n i nd ivi dual of essent i al pragmat is m than was Dame Edith ; he k ne w that h e required f i rm fo o t ing for his t hou g hts and hi s po e t ry , and Dame Ed i t h ul t i mately n eeded the s ame .
The d i fferen c e was that Words wo rth was not confus ed b y the conce pts of au todi da c t icis m and o rig inality that formed a great deal of the themat i c bas is for Dame Ed i th ' s early poetry . Sh e h ad to be n e w, mod ern, progress i ve . Wo rds wo rth could grow mo re naturally .
I n t he later poetry , Dame Ed i t h has g rown na tural ly .
She has remained cons i stent a n d developed slowly both in h e r poet ic s a n d h er searc h for Go d . Her se para teness is her responsib i l ity f o r he r own i mmo rtality. Her body is simp l y a husk given her to carry to the steps o f salvation .
He r brig h t ness o f belief is all t ha t matters , but still t here is the cosmic anxiety that produced the later poetry . Almost in j uxtapo s itio n to "S ong " we hear the sad re frain o f "La Bella Bona Roba ." Alas, lass, lost -Alas, lost.
"La Bella Bona Roba 11 ends, (p . 442) Yo ung g i rl , y o u stare at me as if I were that Medusa Time Tha t will change y ou, too, to stone : So y o u , g rown o ld , must lie alone. Alas, lass, lost! Alas ...

(p . 443)
So death is still a thing to fear; i t is still the unknown.
All her years of poet ic j usti f ic a tion and ra tionali zatio n co uld not conv inc e her o f nature's u lt i mate b eneficence .
But she does end her poetry o n an optimis t ic note .