The Foreword to the new book “The Wisdom of Our Ancestors: Conservative Humanism and the Western Tradition.”
Indissolubility
October 8, 2014
This poem appears in the Winter-Spring 2011 issue of Modern Age. To subscribe now, go here.
Marriage is poorly figured when we say,
“We tied the knot.” A knot can be untied
this side of death, both going their own way;
a marriage only ends when one has died.
So let us say, instead, “We sewed the stitch.”
For stitches pierce to make a permanence,
a taut and sturdy two-in-oneness which
is sundered only by death’s violence.
Just so, in matrimony’s paradigm,
witnessed before the crucifixion’s altar,
the Bridegroom was not knotted to the tree,
but pierced with needle nail-strokes for all time:
he wed the Church in order to exalt her
to heaven’s indissolubility.
Get the Collegiate Experience You Hunger For
Your time at college is too important to get a shallow education in which viewpoints are shut out and rigorous discussion is shut down.
Explore intellectual conservatism
Join a vibrant community of students and scholars
Defend your principles
Join the ISI community. Membership is free.
You might also like
The Danger of Philosophy
In the wrong hands, it can easily lead to endless and perverse questioning of everything.
Was the Constitution a Coup?
H. W. Brands attempts to uncover the causes of the founding debates.
