"O quiet deed! / This is the breaking of the bread; / On this the leanest heart may feed / When by the stiffly-linened priest / All wounds of light are newly dressed, / Healed by the pouring-in of wine / From bitter — as from sweet — grapes bled."
— Hill, Geoffrey (b. 1932)
Author
Work Title
Date
1959
Metaphor
"O quiet deed! / This is the breaking of the bread; / On this the leanest heart may feed / When by the stiffly-linened priest / All wounds of light are newly dressed, / Healed by the pouring-in of wine / From bitter — as from sweet — grapes bled."
Metaphor in Context
There, at the rail, each muffled head
Swings sombrely. O quiet deed!
This is the breaking of the bread;
On this the leanest heart may feed
When by the stiffly-linened priest
All wounds of light are newly dressed,
Healed by the pouring-in of wine
From bitter -- as from sweet -- grapes bled.
But one man lay beneath his vine
And, waking, found that it was dead.
And so my heart has ceased to breathe
(Though there God's worm blunted its head
And stayed.) And still I seem to smile.
(p. 9, ll. 12-24)
Swings sombrely. O quiet deed!
This is the breaking of the bread;
On this the leanest heart may feed
When by the stiffly-linened priest
All wounds of light are newly dressed,
Healed by the pouring-in of wine
From bitter -- as from sweet -- grapes bled.
But one man lay beneath his vine
And, waking, found that it was dead.
And so my heart has ceased to breathe
(Though there God's worm blunted its head
And stayed.) And still I seem to smile.
(p. 9, ll. 12-24)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Hill, Geoffrey. Somewhere is Such a Kingdom: Poems, 1952-1971 Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975.
Date of Entry
11/24/2010
