Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service Lyrics
Look, look, master, here comes two religious caterpillars.
The Jew of Malta.
Polyphiloprogenitive
The sapient sutlers of the Lord
Drift across the window-panes.
In the beginning was the Word.
In the beginning was the Word.
Superfetation of τό ἔν,
And at the mensual turn of time
Produced enervate Origen.
A painter of the Umbrian school
Designed upon a gesso ground
The nimbus of the Baptized God.
The wilderness is cracked and browned
But through the water pale and thin
Still shine the unoffending feet
And there above the painter set
The Father and the Paraclete.
. . . . .
The sable presbyters approach
The avenue of penitence;
The young are red and pustular
Clutching piaculative pence.
The Jew of Malta.
Polyphiloprogenitive
The sapient sutlers of the Lord
Drift across the window-panes.
In the beginning was the Word.
In the beginning was the Word.
Superfetation of τό ἔν,
And at the mensual turn of time
Produced enervate Origen.
A painter of the Umbrian school
Designed upon a gesso ground
The nimbus of the Baptized God.
The wilderness is cracked and browned
But through the water pale and thin
Still shine the unoffending feet
And there above the painter set
The Father and the Paraclete.
. . . . .
The sable presbyters approach
The avenue of penitence;
The young are red and pustular
Clutching piaculative pence.
Under the penitential gates
Sustained by staring Seraphim
Where the souls of the devout
Burn invisible and dim.
Along the garden-wall the bees
With hairy bellies pass between
The staminate and pistilate,
Blest office of the epicene.
Sweeney shifts from ham to ham
Stirring the water in his bath.
The masters of the subtle schools
Are controversial, polymath.
Sustained by staring Seraphim
Where the souls of the devout
Burn invisible and dim.
Along the garden-wall the bees
With hairy bellies pass between
The staminate and pistilate,
Blest office of the epicene.
Sweeney shifts from ham to ham
Stirring the water in his bath.
The masters of the subtle schools
Are controversial, polymath.
About
Genius Annotation
This poem was written between 1917 and June 1918, and first published in the Chicago Little Review, September 1918. It can be found in Eliot’s 1920 collection, called Ara Vos Prec in its London guise, and Poems: 1920 in its New York one.
It’s a strange looking poem with an intimidating vocabulary. Its thrust is a satirical description of some pretty obscure currents of religious thought. The poem also displays some remarkably agile versification.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
what about the Summary of this poem?
Genius Answer
The poem is a contrast between the high register of the Tridentine Mass and the humanist, hedonist working class, brothel going, Irishman Sweeney as the counterpoint.
- 1.Gerontion
- 5.Le Directeur
- 7.Lune de Miel
- 11.Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service
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