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DoorWay Canto 7: Flight to The Eyrie

In Canto 7, the narrating Pilgrim Poet deviates from the Zodiac, leaving Sagittarius, to visit the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle, which has nine stars, and here the poets in heaven live. This canto is the longest in all the trilogy because the poet enjoys being with poets, well-known and otherwise! On his journey through he meets Gerard Manley Hopkins, Benson, Milton, Dante and Shakespeare and after a discussion between Dante and Shakespeare as to who is the greatest of all—each according the other that honour—they both fall into a silence, and then confess that neither is the supreme poet of all. Indeed, the greatest poet of all suddenly appears through a doorway in the dome of heaven: John the Divine. The Pilgrim Poet asks John the question, “Why did God create the universe?” Before answering, John catechises the Pilgrim Poet. We pick up this extract where John has read the Pilgrim Poet’s answer directly from his thoughts—and now answers the question he was asked…

I didn’t say a word but John heard all,
Perceptive to the slightest motion made
Within the mind that God restores to whole.

‘Well answered, now my turn to speak,’ he said.
‘I lay across His breast, and asked Him, ‘Who
Is it betraying, though he eats your bread,

Lord? There (the Garden that He entered too)
I was, and by His cross I suffered, stood;
Then rushed to His tomb where I saw His proof:

The dark abyss of death and deepest flood
Of Hell, and he lone mortal in their dregs
Pulled down, and yet triumphant through His blood

Proving immortal—rising from the rags
Of ruin, nevermore to know dead dust,
Or feel that gravity which makes flight drag.’

With that, he burst into laughter (all here must)
Resuming, ‘Answering then your query so:
To know His mind requires, completely, trust

That in His glory everyone basks, grows;
For He could never with full praise be praised
If even one blade of grass did not show

Its love for Him—stretching upwards and raised
So many trillion times and multiplied;
As even grass for Him has gazed and gazed,

Awaiting that redemption, as winds scythed
Their tops and pressed them backwards into earth.’
He paused. ‘From His glory nothing’s untied;

We’re witnesses to … His surpassing worth.’
The whole assembly—I became aware—
Suddenly still, as round a new-born birth

All focus on the life that’s come to be—
Is waiting for the cry that says, ‘I am’,
Rejoicing then that Life’s our destiny;

Poets in admiration stricken dumb
By that awestruck wonder even John,
Our greatest, felt for Him we could not name!

Yet, yet, and yet… the rush of words came on:
The Hallelujahs barely cut it right—
So more complex—as if their words now shone

With sound, and the universe from our site
Vibrated, reeled as might some pulsar’s joy
Irradiating through spaces of light.

I thought I heard, as playful, Dante’s tongue, toy
Around his palate, persevering with that
Canto where vision failed, mortal flesh cloyed

What he could say—but now in seconds flat
One epic whole, entire, complete, emerged—
Another Comedy for which no wait

Is or was necessary—for as his soul urged
So, praise-perfection spilt forth praises’ pith;
And I, with others, ecstatic, too surged

Forward—each singing, but some compressed myth
That’s understood directly, not in hours
Of speaking, so each note springs the soul’s lift!

If only now I could recall its power—
Or reconfigure how its melody went,
So I could chant on Earth, over and over,

To calm forever evil’s never spent
Reality. But like a dream on waking’s gone,
No thought of mine could hum the tune it sent

Heavenward. Only, suddenly with John
I found myself; the poets vanished through
That door that led to Godhead, on and on

In those creative acts imagination ploughs…

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Notes

Shakespeare and Dante each according the other the honour (this debate precedes my extract here) is based on Dante’s own contrasting of the virtues of St Francis and St Dominic in Cantos 11 and 12 of the Paradiso: each of their disciples extolling the other’s pre-eminence in sanctity.

John: John the Divine, author of the Gospel of John, Epistles of John and the Book of Revelation. All works of sublime poetry.

Who / Is it betraying …: a reference to Judas Iscariot and John’s account in his gospel.

For He could never with full praise be praised: a reference to Hans Denck who said, “For he could never with full praise have been praised, which was the first and only reason for having begun to create”. Without creation, there would have been a deficit of praise; for this reason, God did not have to, but wanted to create.

‘I am’: the baby asserts its ‘I am’ being with its first cry, but the deeper reference here is to the name of God given to Moses, ‘I am Who I am’ and repeated by Christ in John’s gospel: ‘Before Abraham was, I am’, John chapter 8 v. 58.

That / Canto where vision failed: Paradiso Canto 33, line 142: ‘At this point power failed high fantasy …’ and he is unable to express what he has seen.

Another Comedy: in heaven Dante could write another Divine Comedy instantly!

If only now I could recall …: a faint echo of Coleridge’s inability to reconjure his Kubla Khan poem after being interrupted by the gentleman from Porlock.

In those creative acts imagination ploughs: for the technically minded, you will notice that here I do something I don’t often do – the pentameter has become an iambic hexameter! This I hope is a sufficient mimetic device to indicate the fullness – the extra-ness – of the poetic imagination.

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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]

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14 Responses

  1. Roy E. Peterson

    This Canto extract has myriad scripture-based concepts adding to the complexity of rhyme and rhythm. I was thankful for the explanatory notes at the beginning and the end. There are many, what I discern as slant rhymes, that gave me pause for consideration. The tying together of grass wishing to praise and then being pressed back down to earth by wind coupled with human souls experiencing a similar difficulty with evil ever-present on this earthly realm and attempting to suppress praise and joy is an intricate well-woven comparison suffused with your adept wording.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Roy – if I were the POTUS then I would appoint you Head of the Armed Forces! Why? Why, once again you are first to comment on my poem – how do you do it? We have a saying in management in the UK (I am also a management consultant) which is ‘Speed Stuns’ – it’s an adaptation of one of the 12 key military principles of warfare, but it is true: speed in just about any human activity is often decisive and always impressive! Thanks. As for slant rhymes: it’s not a perfect world … and anyway, if they were all perfect, you’d find it boring!

      Reply
  2. Michael Pietrack

    James, you know how I feel about the topic, but still, I marvel at your ability.

    Reply
  3. ABB

    A profound passage from a profound work. This is a thing to be studied and absorbed; like all great works, it benefits from multiple rereadings. This canto, too, is an excellent counterpoint to meeting the false poets in HellWard. The notes are very helpful, thanks for including. A lot of fabulous lines here; love the alliteration of “praise-perfection spilt forth praises’ pith.”
    Very few poets are capable of maintaining the sublime tone you achieve here, James. Not only that, but to maintain this over the entirety of the volume takes extraordinary ability. We are almost nearing the end of your magnum opus—it must feel good to be so close!

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks ABB – love your meticulous readings eg, balancing the poets here with those in HW. And also for acknowledging the ‘sublime tone’ – nothing could be higher praise since it is what I have intended since my youth – and taken 49 years to get to! Sublimity is beauty in an elevated form. As for finishing the poem, you are quite right: I am 96% there now. I started in October 2017 and expect – God willing – to finish in September 2024, so it will be exactly 7 years in the making: 7 is a perfect number – and there will be 33 cantos in all – the number of years our Lord walked this Earth. I feel elated and elevated to get there, for I do not think I am called to write a second epic!

      Reply
  4. Joseph S. Salemi

    This is a dense and highly philosophical text, and as ABB says, it demands several readings. Dante deals with various theological concepts and abstractions too, but he manages to clothe them in visual depictions that are the heart of poetry. James does the same — he presents a coherent narrative, palpable imagery, and a kaleidoscopic choice of diction, all of which hold the reader and allow him to follow the complexity. Nevertheless, I was glad for the short introduction that was provided, for the best way to read Sale’s work is to have the entire text of his books before you. And that is precisely the case with Dante as well.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks so much Joe – your opinion is always so informed and valuable. I am particularly pleased you notice the “kaleidoscopic choice of diction”. It’s almost something that one does not intentionally set out to provide, but it becomes evident in writing that without it, the text tends to boring. I hope – and others must judge – that the whole of the English Cantos, when complete, exhibits just that across the range of wards, stairs and doorways that I encounter along the way!

      Reply
  5. Margaret Coats

    “To calm forever evil’s never spent reality.” Quite a line, James, to indicate in heaven the entirely inaudible but continuing existence of hell somewhere out there, dependent (though you don’t say so here) on the Creator’s will that angels and men have wills of their own.

    With regard to heavenly instantaneity, I recall Peter Abelard’s “O quanta qualia sunt illa sabbata,” where he says desire does not precede the thing desired.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      I hope ‘quite a line’ is a good thing! But anyway, your point is central to the whole book – as it is to the greater model on which mine is based. I am not an universalist, nor an annihilationist, but agree with Dante Inferno 3. Indeed, I first touch on the topic in canto 1 of HellWard when I write:

      For all this, know – each human hides that face
      Divine, which is our task, within our will,
      To reveal at last, if so by God’s grace,

      That Love that Dante saw created hell,
      And by His goodness covered Earth with stars,
      So many, no mind could count them, they fill

      The cosmos…

      The point is: to the rational – by which I mean secular – mind it makes no sense to say that love created hell, but of course we need to understand that it is not God torturing people in hell that is happening; it is that people are getting what they want – which is to exclude God from their lives, which is to deny good. This is possible because God gave humans free will – reason in other words (true rationality) – and it is foundational to creation. Thanks for your interesting comment – may we all reach that Sabbath rest!

      Reply
  6. Brian A. Yapko

    I’m not only impressed by this deeply-experienced excerpt from your grand opus, James but find myself strangely exhilarated and inspired! I would not have thought to number John among the poets and that you do so is bold and profound. What does that say about poetry? And what does that say about the role of poetry in God’s scheme of things? John brings the speaker and reader into a new reality that far transcends everything the speake and reader have experienced before, all through his experiences with the Cross, the Empty Tomb and the New Life that awaits. I will read this excerpt at least two more times to make sure I grasp more of the good news that is conveyed here. Stunning work, James!

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks Brian for your kind words. Yes, the thing is some 33% or more of the Bible is actually poetry, which has – or should have – a profound impact on how we read it. All the Psalms obviously so, and one would have thought the whole book of Revelation too! But to be clear: by saying it is poetry, I am not saying it is not true – either in a literal or a factual sense. Poetry is not an antonym for truth; indeed, poetry is in some situations the only way we have of expressing truth – or deeper truths. Of interest to you from the extract would be my line: “Lord? There (the Garden that He entered too)” which obliquely refers to John’s gospel and the genius of the poetry brought out best in my favourite translation, the NASB (New American Standard Bible) of John 18. 1: “…there was a garden, into which He Himself entered, and His disciples”. The genius is in the reflexive pronoun, Himself. It would be enough to say He entered the garden, but to add the pronoun, He Himself entered … suddenly throws a spotlight on the mythic qualities of the passage, and we are reminded, almost subliminally, of that other garden, that other man – Adam – entered with such disastrous consequences. Hence … the poetry of John: the gospel, the Letters, and the Revelation are poetry – sublimity – beyond Homer or Dante, and naturally modern scholars trying to argue that John did or didn’t write this one or that, is something I am not going to accept or swallow easily!

      Reply
  7. Anthony Watts

    I haven’t much to say that hasn’t been said above, except that I’m well impressed by the sustained level of spiritual intensity evident throughout this unique trilogy.

    Reply

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