Yes, ‘cist’ caught my eye, too, but especially ‘secure cavity,’ which has its own aura.
And they do add up.
Doug
On Oct 22, 2014, at 10:06 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks.
> Pent cost?
> Pent...One long in city pent. Milton started it, I think; and the Romantics
> followed. Wordsworth, keats. Middle English, contained etc.
> Pentecost is out of Greek for 50 surely
> A cist is a small burial chamber. The kind of thing that Elid describes
> exists - a long cist - but not perhaps on Scilly. I'm not sure; I'm no
> archaeological expert. Much of what I have seen on Scilly has been
> "Porthcressa types", Porthcressa being a place on Scilly. Theyre a few
> inches square with ashes in them. But a (depressed) man can dream and Elid
> is a little bit depressed.
> I don't think there is any cist anywhere that could be entered and left as
> he describes; but maybe I misunderstand him
>
> L
>
> L
>
> On 22 October 2014 16:44, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> These do resonate and add up, I feel.
>>
>> [I googled pent cost without luck.]
>>
>> Max
>>
>> On Oct 22, 2014, at 10:17 PM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> *Elid's Den*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> There is another hole. That has no name
>>>
>>> of my coinage. My most secure cavity.
>>>
>>> It is devoid of widely-known entrance;
>>>
>>> and invisible, without openings for light:
>>>
>>> I go hence during day, at gloaming times,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> to rest myself, in a pent cist of stones,
>>>
>>> out flat, walled close; under grasses, not in sight;
>>>
>>> but, now and then, when horror's overly strong
>>>
>>> for anyone of normal humorous bent,
>>>
>>> I lie too long, spent, in my sweat, clung to
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> by the covering I'm still bearing from life;
>>>
>>> what's left of a living corpse trailed by cerements.
>>>
>>> Dreading discoverers' harshness, I fear me.
>>>
>>> Should you stumble on the grave, look off;
>>>
>>> I'd rise up soon, smelling too rank, I know,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> for measured conversation.
>>>
>>> Let me wash!
>>>
>>> I would cleanse my body and my clothing.
>>>
>>> Forgive the full wetness of my attire
>>>
>>> if we met at such time. I could explain;
>>>
>>> and yet's far better that you said no words,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> offering greatest courtesy, being discreet,
>>>
>>> chancing consideration for a man
>>>
>>> who has lost the skill of acting human.
>>>
>>> I do not wish it to be thus, you know,
>>>
>>> remembering cold, for which I'm not prepared.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> [Elidius is one of the names of one who may have lived at some time after
>>> the Roman period on Scilly, or, as it then seems to have been called,
>>> Ennor. There is no evidence of him apart from the earlier name of St
>>> Helen's island, where it is said he may have been buried, Insula Sancti
>>> Elidii. His feast day is 8th August. Until now he has had no
>> hagiographer.
>>>
>>> This poem, assuming it to be genuine, must be associated with the poem
>>> "Elid's cave" which I posted to PoetryEtc 1 October 2014 and perhaps with
>>> the poem "I am now almost without energy" posted 10 September]
>>
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
that we are only
as we find out we are
Charles Olson
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