Theology in poetry

After reading Letters and Papers from Prison (SCM Press 2001), a collection of writings by Dietrich Bonhoeffer while confined at Tegel prison in Berlin, the parts that affected me most were his prayers and poems. one in particular resonated with me; Who am I? The context is important to fully appreciate this poem. Bonhoeffer wrote the poem in 1944, after having been imprisoned for nearly a year and a half. He had very little contact with his parents, his fiancé (Maria von Wedemeyer) and his best friends (Eberhard and Renete Bethge). He spent much of his time helping fellow prisoners, reading philosophy, and the bible several times over (much like myself the Psalms were his favourite.) All this time he was facing constant interrogation and torture from the Gestapo, air raids, and the burdens of other prisoners. This put a huge amount of strain on Bonhoeffer to the point in which he considered taking his own life.

Who am I? – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement 
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly, 
Like a Squire from his country house.

Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly, 
As though they were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune 
Equably, smilingly, proudly, 
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really that which other men tell of? 
Or am I only what I myself know of myself? 
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, 
Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat.

Yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,
Tossing in expectations of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the Other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine! 

I suppose the reason I love this poem so much is because it shows integrity that Bonhoeffer didn’t lose faith when many others would have given up, it’s a poem of hope, seen best in the last line. In fact Bonhoeffer’s last words were allegedly “This is the end, for me the beginning of life” showing that he remained in God’s grace until the moment of his death. Bonhoeffer is also saying something very human however, everyone thinks of themselves poorly, we know all our own flaws whereas others don’t always. Bonhoeffer’s theology claims that God is the only judge, both for himself and others as claimed in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:1); in this poem we see the conflict and resolution to this problem of self-judgement and judgement in the eyes of others. This poem shows us Bonhoeffer laid bare, removed of all honour and piety, rejected and suffering as the Crucified Christ.

The second poem is one that I had the privilege of attending a lecture on by Richard McLauchlan, a Cambridge Ph.D student. It’s only right that I say here that much of the analysis I’m going to give of this poem comes either from him directly or through his inspiration. R.S Thomas died in 2000, he was a priest and Welsh nationalist. He had a very fragile belief in God and it is often seen in his poetry that he questions God’s existence.

The Gap - R.S Thomas

God woke, but the nightmare

did not recede. Word by word

the tower of speech grew.

He looked at it from the air

he reclined on. One word more and

it would be on a level

with him ; vocabulary

would have triumphed. He

measured the thin gap

with his mind. No, no, no,

wider than that! But the nearness

persisted. How to live with

the fact, that was the feat

now. How to take his rest

on the edge of a chasm a

word could bridge.

                                He leaned

over and looked in the dictionary

they used. There was the blank still

by his name of the same

order as the territory

between them, the verbal hunger

for the thing in itself. And the darkness

that is god’s blood swelled

in him, and he let it

to make the sign in space

on the page, that is in all languages

and none ; that is the grammarian’s

torment and the mystery

at the cell’s core , and the equation

that will not come out, and is

the narrowness that we stare

over into the eternal

silence that is the repose of God.

The first thing to say about this poem is that is about the epistemic distance between man and God, the unbridgeable gap that our words can’t fill. However this poem reflects the tower of Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9 “the tower of speech grew”. This shows metaphor is used to show God’s vulnerability, the first half of this poem shows a very anthropomorphic God who comes off as weak “vocabulary would have triumphed” this would give man victory over God, and thus make him sovereign. It should also be noted that the structure of the poem is like a tower about to topple, showing the fragility of humanity under God.

At the mid-point in the poem it shows that there is a way for humanity to reach God which is both frightening and hopeful “a word could bridge.” This is both the literal word, which is Fallen humanities deification, and, the Word (John 1:1) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus, God’s begotten and eternal Word, this second meaning shows Jesus as the mediator between man and God. Then the final line that shows God’s victory “silence that is the repose of God” throughout this poem the silence is deafening, the clever use of structure and grammar to manipulate the word flow to produce that silence, it’s almost as if Thomas considers it a kind of prayer. It is common for there to be a silence in between lines, and in this poem there is a break in the middle, the first half is crisis and fearful whereas the second half is God’s triumph and hopeful. This is a reflection of the Friday, followed by the silence on the Saturday where God is dead and the exaltation on the Sunday. 

Finally my own attempt at a theological poem, this is by no means a masterpiece and I’m going to avoid giving context to this poem, as I want it to be about whatever the audience wants it to be about rather than what it actually represents (which might not be anything at all!)

Golgotha - Dane Harrison

May you ever be intoxicated by her Love.

She brings him goodness all the days of his life.

With all humility and gentleness, with patience

and bearing with one another in Love.

Let us Love one another, for my Love comes from God.

Whoever does not know Love does not know God.

Love one another, just as I have Loved you.

There is no fear in my Love, perfect loves casts it out.

My soul is in the midst of lions.

My God, My God why hath thou forsaken me?

Save me, I am thine, I have done what you have asked.

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

I am with you, to the end of the age.

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

It is finished.

Dedicated to Friedrich Nietzsche who died on this day in 1900 (age 55).

"You have your way I have my way. As for the right way, the true way and the one way, it does not exist."