A Lament for Our Lady's Shrine at Walsingham (c. 1600)
In the wracks of Walsingham
Whom should I choose
But the Queen of Walsingham
to be my guide and muse.
Then, thou Prince of Walsingham,
Grant me to frame
Bitter plaints to rue thy wrong,
Bitter woe for thy name.
Bitter was it so to see
The seely sheep
Murdered by the ravenous wolves
While the shepherds did sleep.
Bitter was it, O to view
The sacred vine,
Whilst the gardeners played all close,
Rooted up by the swine.
Bitter, bitter, O to behold
The grass to grow
Where the walls of Walsingham
So stately did show.
Such were the worth of Walsingham
While she did stand,
Such are the wracks as now do show
Of that Holy Land.
Level, level, with the ground
The towers do lie,
Which, with their golden glittering tops,
Pierced once to the sky.
Where were gates are no gates now,
The ways unknown
Where the press of peers did pass
While her fame was blown.
Owls do scrike where the sweetest hymns
Lately were sung,
Toads and serpents hold their dens
Where the palmers did throng.
Weep, weep, O Walsingham,
Whose days are nights,
Blessings turned to blasphemies,
Holy deeds to despites.
Sin is where Our Lady sat,
Heaven is turned to hell,
Satan sits where Our Lord did sway --
Walsingham, O farewell!
- - -
A word about the poem from Carol Rumens.
Tetrameter and trimeter lines alternate, and the poet is happy to let the trimeter drop a stress now and again, in lines such as "The sacred vine", "The seely sheep". The rhythmical intensity of the lament is heightened by its numerous repetitions. The name, Walsingham, occurs eight times. It is the last word in lines one, three, and five, and so sets up a kind of soft dactylic chime which is audible throughout the poem. "Bitter" is another word repeated with painful emphasis. "Wracks" is the old form of "wrecks" but it does double duty here in its association with "racks".
Thought and syntax, sound and sense, are one throughout this poem, but there is a subtle development, almost what modern readers would call a "mourning process." In the penultimate verse the address shifts to Walsingham itself, already personified ("while she did stand") and perhaps identified with Mary. This is the apex of feeling, and subsequently the speaker seems resigned to the loss. Now the word that has unified the ballad with its end-of-line repetitions, appears at the beginning of the line. The word order has been virtually reversed, and in "Walsingham, O farewell" the emphasis is, appropriately, on the mournfully valedictory two syllables of "farewell". The little jolt in the metre, like a caught breath, adds to its pathos.
- - -
Ruins and Site of Walsingham Priory
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1004055Walsingham, a small town about five miles from the north Norfolk coast, lies on boulder clay over chalk. The site of the core precinct of the priory, the area under assessment, lies to the east of the High Street and is bounded to the north by Holt Road, to the south by Church Street and to the east by an early route of the River Stiffkey, diverted to take a more serpentine course through the designed landscape surrounding The Abbey, the house which occupies the centre of the site. [...]
The main entrance to the priory is through the gatehouse to the west, which gives access to the precinct from the High Street. This gatehouse dates to the mid-C15.
[...]
The gatehouse is aligned with the priory church, the east end of which stands to gable height. The church is about 30m to the north of Abbey House, and is within an extensive area of lawn with gravel paths to the west and north. [...]
The excavations undertaken in 1961 found that the church had a six bay nave, the C14 bays about 5m wide, 0.5m wider than those in the C12 church. There was a tower over the crossing, beyond which was the chancel, of four bays, with a square sanctuary at the east end. Encroaching onto the buttresses on the north side of the church was a small chapel, built in the C15, the alignment of which is slightly askew from that of the church, following that of the Holy House, the shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham, which it was built to enclose. The internal dimensions of the chapel are about 12m x 9m. Neither the C12 nor the C14 churches had transepts, and the excavators' plan shows an entrance from the cloister and east claustral range directly into the south aisle. [...]
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