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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MAIDEN VIOLAINE, SELECTION by PAUL CLAUDEL

First Line: THE ANGEL OF GOD BEARS TIDINGS OF PEACE
Last Line: THE VINE.
Subject(s): ANGELS; GOD; RELIGION; THEOLOGY;
@3The Angelus sounds. First stroke.@1
@3Pierre de Craon:@1 The angel of God bears tidings of peace, and the
infant hearkens within the mother's bosom.
@3Second Stroke.
Jacques Hury:@1 Man goeth forth in the morning and returneth at night, and
the earth stretcheth out from his doorway.
@3Third Stroke.
Anne Vercoro:@1 Sound the trumpet! And all things are consumed in the
consummation.
@3Deep silence. Then, the peal.
Pierre de Craon:@1 Thus speaks the Angelus as with threefold voice, thus in
the Maytime
When the unmarried son returns from his mother's burial, to his home,
"Voice-of-the-rose" speaks in the silver twilight.
O Violaine! O woman through whom temptation slips upon us!
For, not yet knowing what I did, I regarded whither you turned the darkness
of your eyes.
Assuredly I have always thought joy is a goodly thing,
But now it is mine!
I bear it within my hands! I am as one who, beholding a tree that is laden
with fruit,
Climbing the ladder, feels the depths of the branches yielding with his
body.
And I must speak under the tree, like an even-toned flute!
How the water uplifts me! And thanksgiving unloosens the stone of my heart!
Thus may I live! Thus may I grow, merged in my God, as the olive tree and
the vine.



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