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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] >