{"id":1184,"date":"2020-12-21T09:04:45","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T09:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1184"},"modified":"2023-12-18T17:19:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T17:19:33","slug":"o-oriens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1184","title":{"rendered":"O Oriens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

December 21st<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Song of Songs 2:8-14
Luke 1:39-45<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

O Radiant Dawn,
splendour of eternal light,
sun of justice;
come, shine on those
who dwell in darkness
and the shadow of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O Oriens<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream\u2026
So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
\u201cSleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm Guite<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to Malcolm Guite read his sonnet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
O Dayspring! A Fifth Advent reflection<\/a><\/blockquote>