The notion that sexual appetites are evil underlies both Pound's dramatic
monologue and St Francis's canticle. The latter is NOT unambiguously an
"exuberation affirmation" -- it simply masquerades as one. The line about
mortal sin is not a single "contrapunto". Read Francis's poem more closely,
and you'll see that aversion to sexuality is a major theme of the saint's
work.  That fear and aversion is most evident in the sister/water/death
associations:


Laudato si mi signore per sor acqua. la quale e multo utile et humile et
pretiosa. et casta.
...
Laudato si mi signore per sora nostra morte corporale. da la quale nulla
homo uiuente po skappare. guai a cquelli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali.
beati quelli ke trouara ne le tue sanctissime uoluntati ka la morte secunda
nol farra male.

(Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble,
and precious, and pure.
...
Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whose embrace no
living person can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Happy those
she finds doing your most holy will. The second death can do no harm to
them.)

This linking of sexual appetite with evil and sin is certainly a commonplace
in the medieval religious poetry that leads up to Dante -- and Pound would
not have overlooked this aspect of the genre.

The troubled character in Pound's poem is trying not to have impure
thoughts; his unstated fear is that he might die in a state of sin because
of these thoughts.  The Nunc Dimittis prayer tells us so.  The thematic
connections are not really all that tenuous. By means of the title and the
prayer, Pound places the Supreme Court ruling in the historical context of
western judeo-christian religious tradition with its distorted, guilt-ridden
attitude towards human sexuality.

Tim


----- Original Message -----
From: "bob scheetz" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 12:32 AM
Subject: Re: cantico del sole


> tim,
>      there is that one, almost adventitious, contrapunto in francis'
> cantico; but, as a unity it is an exhuberant affirmation, a great "yea!"
to
> life,  sensual existence.   pound's is the diametric opposite,
> contemplates with dread the purveyance of "rosy fingered dawn" & co, the
> celebratory sensuality of the pagan classics.  so they should,
> naturally, be titled opposite...as l'allegro & il penserosso, sunny south
> vs frozen north, eh?
>       further, the "thought" that "troubles sleep" being nihilism,
> ... first amendment commodification & commerce of "the word",
> there, for puritan piety, is a spiritual wasteland,
> ... and the sun, a principle of dehydration & death.
> an existence the aged and faithful simeon would,
> reasonably, wish rather to depart
>
> thence, perhaps, an ironic "cantico del sole"...postlapsarian,
> ... of modernity?
>
> but...still seems a bit of a stretch, no?
>
> bob
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 10:30 PM
> Subject: Re: cantico del sole
>
>
> > Bob,
> > The title.   I'd venture the following explanation:  the Nunc Dimittis
> (the
> > Song of Simeon to which you refer) has long been a prayer which is said
at
> > the end of the day; this allusion, together with "It troubles my sleep",
> > establishes the dramatic context: it's bedtime.  But the prayer ("Now
> > lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace") is also associated with the
end
> > of life, and has come to be associated with the Departed, with death and
> > dying.  So there's a death-wish here.  Death is, in a sense, an answer
to
> > the vexations of the man, for it brings "peace" to the troubled soul.
But
> > the death-wish is intertwined with the guilt-ridden puritanical mind,
> which
> > fears dying in a state of sin and damnation. This guilt/punishment
complex
> > sheds some light on the title.  In Saint Francis's Cantico del Sole one
> > finds this line:  "guai a quelli che morranno ne le peccata mortali" --
> woe
> > to those who die in in mortal sin. That's how the title is connected
> > thematically to the poem.
> > Tim
>
>