THE Heavenly Circuit; Berenice's Hair;
Tent-pole of Eden; the tent's drapery;
Symbolical glory of the earth and air!
The Father and His angelic hierarchy
That made the magnitude and glory there
Stood in the circuit of a needle's eye.
Some found a different pole, and where it stood
A pattern on a napkin dipped in blood.
Notes
www.cptryon.org/prayer/xstations/veil.html
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That does help, as I didn't realize that it was on the way to the crucifiction that she is said to have wiped his face. Or at ´least in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here is another good link:
www.theeagle.com/spotlight/exhibits/2002articles/111402rembrandt.htm It tells how a French engraver, Claude Mellan, depicted this relic by drawing a likeness of him using a single spiral, which somehow, for me, speaks to the poem's celestial themes. The word "napkin" is curious, because from what I have read, it was her veil that she used, but some accounts do say towell, and I just saw that towell is one meaning of napkin. Anyway, it has a weirdly feminine quality to it, even though feminine napkins as we know them were not invented until the First World War. Still, it made me think about the suffering of women in connection with their men and the way that Berenice is said to have cut hair off -- it seems the poem is blending different interpretations about the "magnetic pole" in legend. -
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I'm interested in deciphering this poem... Berenice's Hair is a constellation that is named after the "pony tail" that an Egyptian Queen cut off when her husband went into battle. The Napkin of St. Veronica is a relic said to have wiped Jesus’ face which left its impression on it. I don't have a sense of this poem though, except that perhaps the the first six lines relate to the old testament and the last two, the new. Any insights?
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