The First Pentecost

by Jessica Powers

All the Apostles looked at one another;

words curled in fire through the returning gloom.

Something had changed and colored all the room.

The beauty of the Galilean mother

took the breath from them for a little space.

Even a cup, a chair or a brown dress

could draw their tears with the great loveliness

that wrote tremendous secrets every place.

That was the day when Fire came down from heaven,

inaugurating the first spring of love.

Blood melted in the frozen veins, and even

the least bird sang in the mind's inmost grove.

The seed sprang into flower, and over all

still do the multitudinous blossoms fall.

Jessica Powers

1905 – 1988


Early Years (1905 - 1936)

  • Born and raised in  Mauston, Wisconsin
  • Both her father and older sister had died by her thirteenth birthday
  • Returned to raise her brothers after her mother's death in 1925
  • She published over 100 poems before 1936

Carmelite Community (1941 - 1988)

  • Entered the Milwaukee community of the Carmel of Mother of God, as a postulant In 1941
  •  In 1942, she received the habit of the Carmelites and was given the religious name of Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit.
  • As a mystic Jessica expresses in her poetry the direct, intense, immediacy of God's presence.

Poem Structure

  • 2 stanzas of different length
  • 8 lines in the first stanza and 6 in the second
  • Written in iambic pentameter
  • Seems like it's not following any pattern except…

It's pretty much a sonnet!

(again)
  • Resembles Italian form most
  • The stanzas break at the sestet

Rhyme

All the Apostles looked at one another; A

words curled in fire through the returning gloom. B

Something had changed and colored all the room. B

The beauty of the Galilean mother A

took the breath from them for a little space. C

Even a cup, a chair or a brown dress D

could draw their tears with the great loveliness D

that wrote tremendous secrets every place. C


Rhyme cont.

That was the day when Fire came down from heaven, A

inaugurating the first spring of love. B

Blood melted in the frozen veins, and even A

the least bird sang in the mind's inmost grove. B

The seed sprang into flower, and over all C

still do the multitudinous blossoms fall. C

Rhythm

iambic pentameter

All the Apostles looked at one another;
All the | Apost | -les looked | at one | another;
words curled in fire through the returning gloom.
words curled | in fire | through the | return | -ing gloom.

Poem Analysis

Poem written in 1937

before she became a nun

The transformation of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit brings life to everything.
Even the mundane becomes exquisite.

All the Apostles looked at one another;

words curled in fire through the returning gloom.

Something had changed and colored all the room.

The beauty of the Galilean mother

took the breath from them for a little space.

Even a cup, a chair or a brown dress

could draw their tears with the great loveliness

that wrote tremendous secrets every place.


All the Apostles looked at one another;

words curled in fire through the returning gloom.

Something had changed and colored all the room.

The beauty of the Galilean mother

took the breath from them for a little space.

Even a cup, a chair or a brown dress

could draw their tears with the great loveliness

that wrote tremendous secrets every place.

That was the day when Fire came down from heaven,

inaugurating the first spring of love.

Blood melted in the frozen veins, and even

the least bird sang in the mind's inmost grove.

The seed sprang into flower, and over all

still do the multitudinous blossoms fall.

Powers paints a vivid image of Holy Spirit descending on those in the upper room at Pentecost.

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