The Portico of the Mystery of the Second Virtue by Charles Peguy, translated by Dorothy Brown Aspinwall, 158 pages
This is Peguy's song of Hope, the "little sister" of Faith and Love, who dances between her sisters and hides beneath the skirts of Night. It is Hope that Peguy treasures above all, childlike Hope who does not know the ways of the world and plays in happy disdain of them. His Hope is not merely for himself, but for his native France, eldest daughter of the Church, and for the poor, who commit themselves to Hope. At its center is a poetic reflection on the three great parables of Hope - the lost sheep, the lost drachma, and the lost child. The last is not retold, only alluded to, the power of the promise, rendered so commonplace by familiarity, given a new, shattering impact by the poet's indirectness.
The poem makes use of Peguy's customary repetition, although less so than some of his other works, making it somewhat more accessible than The Mystery of the Holy Innocents or The Mystery of Joan of Arc.
"A man had two sons."
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