I Sing of a Maiden

Spiritual Sunday

Here’s a lovely spring poem from the Middle Ages about the conception of Jesus. Jesus enters Mary as “stille” (quietly) as April dew falls upon the grass. Mary is described as “makelees,” an adjective which (according to the Norton Anthology of British Literature) is a three-way pun: spotless, matchless, and mateless.

I love how gentle the poem is. While the event may be momentous—a maiden “chees” (chooses) to become the “moder” (mother) of “the king of all kinges”—it is compared to something as common, and as miraculous, as a fresh spring morning.  I’m also smitten with the image of Jesus entering his “moderes bowr” (mother’s bower), a womb that is also a garden.  With God the Holy Spirit as Mary’s partner, this is lovemaking at its sweetest:

I Sing of a Maiden

I sing of a maiden
That is makelees:
Kind of alle kinges
To her sone she chees.

He cam also stille
Ther his moder was
As dewe in Aprille
That falleth on the gras.

He cam also stille
To his moderes bowr
As dew in Aprille
That falleth on the flowr.

He cam also stille
There his moder lay
As dewe in Aprille
That falleth on the spray.

Moder and maiden
Was never noon but she:
Wel may swich a lady
Godes moder be.