VERSE Editions of a Poet

Editions of a Poet First, he’s rejected.

He saw all human action in two basic images: Clio, who was history, full of fuss, fury, and big talk, always organizing, building, arranging, conniving; and Veronica, “a little nobody, a child, who takes out her handkerchief and takes an eternal imprint of the face of Jesus”—i.e., any individual soul who by grace or purity of heart simply sees what the saints saw, the great but not ponderously intricate truth of Christianity, and acts directly, immediately, spontaneously. Peguy’s favorite word was approfondissement — deepening—the form of growth which he opposed to the mere elaborating and complicating which takes up most of mankind’s time.

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John Fandel

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Editions of a Poet First, he’s rejected.

He saw all human action in two basic images: Clio, who was history, full of fuss, fury, and big talk, always organizing, building, arranging, conniving; and Veronica, “a little nobody, a child, who takes out her handkerchief and takes an eternal imprint of the face of Jesus”—i.e., any individual soul who by grace or purity of heart simply sees what the saints saw, the great but not ponderously intricate truth of Christianity, and acts directly, immediately, spontaneously. Peguy’s favorite word was approfondissement — deepening—the form of growth which he opposed to the mere elaborating and complicating which takes up most of mankind’s time.