The Statue Of The Virgin At Granard Speaks

Question 1

Stanza 1 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 1

It can be bitter here at times like this, November wind sweeping across the border.

Question 2

Stanza 2 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 2

Closer to home the wind sails over dying lakes.

Question 3

Stanza 3 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 3

They fit me to the myth of a man crucified.

They kneel before me and their prayers fly up like sparks from a bonfire that blaze a moment, then wink out.

Question 4

Stanza 4 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 4

It can be lovely here at times.

Question 5

Stanza 5 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 5

My being cries out to be incarnate, incarnate, maculate and tousled in a honeyed bed.

Question 6

Stanza 6 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 6

Death is just another harvest scripted to the season’s play.

Question 7

Stanza 7 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 7

no respite from the keening of the wind.

Question 8

Stanza 8 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 8

On a night like this I remember the child who came with fifteen summers to her name, and she lay down alone at my feet without midwife or doctor or friend to hold her hand and she pushed her secret out into the night,

I did not move, I did not lift a finger to help her, I didn’t intercede with heaven, nor whisper the charmed word in God’s ear.

Question 9

Stanza 9 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 9

On a night like this I number the days to the solstice and the turn back to the light.

Question 10

Stanza 10 (The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks)

Answer 10

O Sun, center of our foolish dance, burning heart of stone, molten mother of us all, hear me and have pity.