The Pentecost Selection

The key Bible passage for Pentecost is, of course, Acts 2.1-21, and I am always drawn back to the King James (Authorised) Version for this text.  To me there is something very poetic in the prose of the opening few verses. This has prompted me to reset it into a 10-line poetic shape.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven
As of a mighty rushing wind
and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 2.1-4 (King James Version)

These lines have inspired many poets and I have selected four. I have made a few comments but largely have left the message in the hands of these poets.

My first is from the pen of John Greenleaf Whittier, an American 19^thcentury Quaker and fierce advocate for the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Poem based on Acts 2.3 – John Whittier ¹

“Not on one favour’d forehead fell!
Of old the fire-tongued miracle,
But flamed o’er the thronging host
The baptism of the Holy Ghost”

And then on to John Keble, some verses from his poem for Whitsunday published in 1827 in “The Christian Year”. John Keble was an Anglican Priest, Professor of Poetry at Oxford and of course after his famous Assize Sermon of 1833 became a leader of the Oxford Movement (“The Tractarians”).

 From Whitsun by John Keble ²

But when he came the second time, 
He came in power and love,
Softer than gale at morning prime
Hovered His holy Dove.

The fires that rushed on Sinai down
In sudden torrents dread,
Now gently light, a glorious crown,
On every sainted head.

And then he concludes with

Come Lord, Come Wisdom, Love, and Power, 
Open our ears to hear; 
Let us not miss th' accepted hour;
Save, Lord, by Love or Fear.

Moving forward to the late Victorian period and the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins. He was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose post-humous fame established him among the leading Victorian poets. His style established him as very innovative writer who praised God through vivid use of imagery and nature.

The difficulty is trying to capture the free and unconfined spirit of God, the life of God using our words. Poets typically use images to help us to picture what is beyond words. In this instance Hopkins uses the image of electricity to show that the world is charged with God’s life force.

The final image of God’s life-giving Spirit is of a warm mother bird sheltering us all. A safe place to be nurtured as we prepare to fly, to be launched into his world!

God's Grandeur by Gerard Manly Hopkins ³

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

And finally, forward to the 21^st century a Sonnet from a very modern poet, Malcom Guite. Like John Keble before him Malcolm is a poet-priest and Chaplain of Girton College Cambridge,  He has written many books  and is a regular contributor to The Church Times. I think his words speak clearly to the text of Acts.

 Pentecost by Malcolm Guite ⁴

Today we feel the wind beneath our wings
Today  the hidden fountain flows and plays
Today the church draws breath at last and sings
As every flame becomes a Tongue of praise.
This is the feast of fire, air, and water
Poured out and breathed and kindled into earth.
The earth herself awakens to her maker
And is translated out of death to birth.
The right words come today in their right order
And every word spells freedom and release
Today the gospel crosses every border
All tongues are loosened by the Prince of Peace
Today the lost are found in His translation.
Whose mother-tongue is Love, in every nation.

Sources

1. The Expositor’s Dictionary of Poetical Quotations, James Moffatt, DD., D.Litt,, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1913

2. The Christian Year, John Keble, George Newnes Ltd., London, 1897

3. Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics, 1985)

4. Sounding the Seasons, Malcolm Guite, Canterbury Press Norwich, 2012

Submitted by Roger Verrall May 17^th, 2021