Four Hundred Years of Poetry: Veni Creator Spiritus

A Lush Middle English Hymn

Dear bookish friend,

Friar William Herebert’s poetry is just swoony for me, every time. Even the bloody judgment ones. He rules over the English-to-Latin lyric translation, with gorgeously evocative beginning lines that arrest my attention. A few for your joy (and they are best read aloud—try your best combination of a Scots, Appalachian, and Spanish accent to approximate Middle English):

• Heyl leuedy, se-steorre bryht (Hail lady, sea-star bright)

• Wele, heriyyng and worshype boe to crist that doere ous bouhte / To wham gradden osanna chyldren clene of thoute (Joy, praise and worship be to Christ who dearly us bought / To whom shout “Hosanna” the children clean in thought)

• Holy wrouhte of sterres brryht, / Of ryht byleue ay lasting lyht (Holy maker of stars bright / of right belief the everlasting light)

• The kynges baneres beth forth y-lad, / The rode tokne is nou to-sprad (The king’s banners are forth unfurled / The token of the cross is now raised)

Does the beauty of these lines not make you want to sing under moonlight, at least figuratively? Have I been reading too much L.M. Montgomery? Perhaps.