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“I Worship My Mistress, for I Have
Seen Her Beauty”
—Egyptian Coffin Texts, spell 484—a poem for Linda
It may be said that I am weak,
That what I did was not from strength;
Only I persevered because of duty;
But to that, what I say, and at length:
I worship my mistress, for I have seen her beauty.
It’s what I always sought. I speak
As one afflicted, brought up where
Love’s conditional type of booty
Means nothing finally—now I swear
I worship my mistress, for I have seen her beauty.
At the place where souls end and break,
Nothing is nothing and that is sure,
Still one seed flourishes and there’s fealty:
Inescapably real, certainly pure—
I worship my mistress, for I have seen her beauty.
.
.
James Sale has had over 50 books published, most recently, “Mapping Motivation for Top Performing Teams” (Routledge, 2021). He has been nominated by The Hong Kong Review for the 2022 Pushcart Prize for poetry, has won first prize in The Society of Classical Poets 2017 annual competition, and performed in New York in 2019. He is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times. His most recent poetry collection is “StairWell.” For more information about the author, and about his Dante project, visit https://englishcantos.home.blog. To subscribe to his brief, free and monthly poetry newsletter, contact him at [email protected]
It takes intellectual dexterity to fashion such rhyme schemes. With all your wonderful poems, including this one, your poems have as much beauty as the one you are extolling. I suppose someone will comment about the poem, “She Walks in Beauty,” by Lord Byron, but this is so distinct and “inescapably real.” FYI: I enjoy your monthly newsletter.
Thanks Roy – I like being ‘distinct’, for if it were true, then it would mean I have style, my style: something we all strive to achieve in poetry as the influence of the past constrains us to write like ‘them’ – but, we must break away! And so pleased you like my monthly newsletter – please pass the word on!
I second Roy about your ability for coming up with this Salean Cinquain here. (Need to get Pietrack to think of a better name.) You demonstrate the endless inventiveness of which formal verse is capable, James. I too was reminded of Byron’s famous poem, though the Egyptians seem to have beat him by about 4 millennia in the rough phrasing. The variation in the meter is also notable. Lovely work.
Thanks ABB. ‘Lovely’ is also a favourite word of mine, for it is akin to beauty, a concept essential to truly understanding poetry – as well as writing it. Your appreciation is deeply felt – thank you.
How about a ‘Talbot Road Cinquain’ (the street where James lives)?
I looked up Coffin Text 484, and the original refers to the goddess Hathor, the Egyptian deity of love, beauty, celebration, music, dancing, and protectress of women. She seems like a combination of Venus and Dionysus. Jim’s composition of this for Linda is a magnificent tribute.
Thanks Joe – love those old Egyptian writings, second only of course to the ancient Greeks! Yes, tribute it is to Linda. And we still well and fondly remember our great meeting up with you at the Princeton club in NY – that was a marvellous event.
At times you force me, young man, to look at meter in entirely different ways, and I, too, am the younger for it. Old dogs, as it happens, love new tricks.
As you get older CB, I realise that I like you more and more. I guess, too, we all want to be younger and the Muse does confer that blessing on her devotees as we enter her world where all things are possible. Let us both keep the tricks manifesting!
Clever work, James, filled with lovely turns and phrases–with the final stanza being worthy of the word, exquisite.
She must have been quite a woman to inspire such a tribute!
Thank you James: when you next come to the UK, I hope to introduce you to Linda. Of course, if we come to the USA, then we can also meet up!
Linda is one lucky lady James. I know she is delighted by this poem. I, too, am delighted by it. The rhyme scheme is a joy to read and the meter allows it to slide off the tongue with your delicate admission.
Yes joy – such a wonderful emotion: so pleased you ‘enjoyed’ this so much! Thank you.
A beautifully-crafted love poem with an interesting rhyme scheme. The third stanza is very impactful stanza and it sums up the definition of real love. “Where nothing is nothing” is a fantastic way to represent a place beyond the clutches of the mortal world. And even in such a place, the seed of true love’s fealty abides. What a beautiful tribute!
Thank you Shamik – delighted you liked the crafting of this poem.
Hello, James!
Your intense, yet soft as a cloud worship, touched my heart! It is almost as though I am with you, and can see the worship in your eyes! Indeed, you must be pleased with having your own style. We can all mimic form and rhyme. I always enjoy the magic concoction of gentleness and depth, I so delight in.
With appreciation of your unparalleled art!
~~ Patricia~~
Thanks Patti – to touch the heart is exactly what we want poetry to do. I am delighted this poem has touched your heart – thank you so much for commenting so generously.
James, the measure of a true and enduring love is tangible in this unique poem – a poem that lifts my heart in hateful days. You have made me believe that love really does conquer all… and that makes me smile. Thank you!
Thanks Susan. We keep talking about coming to America again, and if we did we’d want to go to Texas! Who knows: maybe you will meet my adorable mistress!
Ancient Egyptian literature is one of the great untapped resources for modern poetic inspiration. The ancient works in translation have a solemn mystery about them that you capture well in this poem.
I, too, saw echoes of Byron‘s “She Walks in Beauty,” and note that that poem is part of a set imitating Hebrew love songs. Perhaps the ancient connection to Egypt echoed through time and also shines through in Byron‘s imitation.
I also echo the previous comments about your dexterity with rhyme. “Beauty”is not easy to rhyme, yet you challenge yourself by ending your refrain with it, resulting in some very dexterous rhymes. I also enjoy your use of rhyming across stanzas. It adds a sense of unity.
Very perceptive remarks, Adam, so thanks. You are absolutely right about Ancient Egyptian literatures: there is a mystery in them which is curiously compelling. And, of course, the connection between the Egyptians and the Hebrews is controversial though undoubtedly real: even the name Moses seems derivative from the Egyptian language. Finally, thanks for adumbrating on the rhyme usage/technique – I’d like to think, as you do, that it does create precisely that unity which beauty itself possesses!
It’s an unusual pleasure and surprise to find a contemporary love poem in straightforward praise of the Beloved.
Dear Anthony – a very interesting point you have commented on; it is certainly a surprise and the reason for that is that our contemporary society has become so skeptical, cynical and materialistic that it can no longer say what it means even if in some vague way it believes in ‘love’. It has to go, mostly, around the topic by indirection (and thereby weakening the intensity of the emotion) lest it be thought sentimental, uncool, or a plain sucker. Thanks for recognising the directness of my approach – it actually matches how I wooed my wife in the first place: a one year campaign in which she was left in no doubt at any point that she was the one!
Your analysis of a contemporary malaise is spot on. Here’s what Alan Watts said on the subject: “It is commonly thought that, of all people, lovers behold one another in the most unrealistic light, and that in their encounter is but the mutual projection of extravagant ideals. But may it not be that nature has allowed them to see for the first time what a human being is…”
Thanks Anthony – a wonderful thought from Alan Watts (whom I like but do not always agree with!) Indeed, to see each other and ourselves for the ‘first time’ is what Heaven is designed to be. Now we see in a glass darkly …
Alan Watts has been a massive influence on me. His early work, “Myth and Ritual in Christianity”, is a beautiful book. It showed me the religion of my childhood, which I had rejected as superstitious nonsense, in a completely new light. I too have reservations, at least about his later work. I think his own insight and eloquence went to his head a bit when he became adopted as a kind of “New Age guru”. “The Book: on the taboo against knowing who you are” is full of wisdom, yet somehow manages to trivialise its essential message. I don’t suppose his alcoholism helped.