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!
- 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
Poem Analysis
Poem written in 1937
The transformation of the Holy Spirit
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.