Monody Quotes

“Much later in his life, Auden would borrow a musical metaphor from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and say that Kierkegaard was a 'monodist, who can hear with particular acuteness one theme in the New Testament -- in his case, the theme of suffering and sacrifice -- but is deaf to its rich polyphony.' And for the Auden who emerges in the pages of this volume [Prose, Volume III: 1949-1955], the unique power of Christian doctrine is its polyphonic character, its capacity to address every dimension of our being, to give a comprehensive account of how history and nature relate, and -- decisively in Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection -- how they may be reconciled.

(The Poet's Prose)”
― Alan Jacobs, Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant

“You were my beloved lacrimarium,
my purgatoryx, a red light candle night;
a wide lost room in our love's dimension.

You were the sunlight reflected
upon the moon's eyes, the zephyr of dawn
that fell down so conscious.

You were my broken unguentarium,
a paradox, my funerary and my resurrection.

You were the sword and the wound;
I was the pain and its sorrow.

You were my beloved lacrimarium;
once a funereal monody -
now my heart's unguentarium
and this eternal melody.”
― Becky M.R.