curious scribblings

Mar 14, 2025

I began to write about Wilfred and Alice Meynell—to them is owed a debt of gratitude for saving the life, literally, of poet Francis Thompson—so I took a book off the shelf (Complete Poems of Francis Thomspon) given me twenty years ago by Father Richard Wersing (1910-2006); he taught poetry at Duquesne University in the 1980s.

I never saw his handwriting in the back—this was a thrilling discovery.

I found three intriguing scribbles: on the left page: (1) in quotation marks, and (2) in parentheses. And on the right: (3) a poem. What he tore from the top of the left page is a mystery.

I discovered the quote (1) is a brief summary of a wonderful article by Merton in a 1947 issue of Commonweal titled Poetry and the Contemplative Life. Well worth reading.

The text (2) in parentheses is taken from that same article.

I’m stymied by (3) the poem. All searches have failed me. There are echoes of Psalms and other verses found in the Holy Writ, and Augustine’s Confessions, but I haven’t been able to tie it down. If you recognize it please comment below or email me.

NB: I’ll get back to Wilfred and Alice Meynell soon.

“Thomas Merton saw danger in his art, the danger of the poets being cheated of the gift of union with God.”

(He may remain there all his life on the threshold, never entering into the banquet, but always returning back into the street to tell the passers-by of the wonderful music he has heard coming from inside the palace of the King.)