Aerial Voices at the Axeblock
of Lord Chancellor Thomæ Mori (Sir Thomas More)
and at the Pyre
of Guillaume Tyndalus (William Tyndale).
Two candles meet,
and burn against
one another, as if
the flame each carried,
in a wick which each
one burned with being
were the whole flame,
and the other, not.
The axeblade glints
like firelight, it's edge
strikes down mere matter
smiling wide as fire;
while the holy flints
kindle in the tinder fledge
and splutter, splutter
in the refining pyre.
Self’s candle flickers
and fades in the wind,
each as a lone bush
burning in a wilderness,
holding a share of
the spark, the early flame
Indeed: That Flame!
Yet less than all flame.
Two stiff candles
Meet & burn against
One another, as if
The flame each carried,
In a limp wick which each
One burned with as being,
Were the whole flame,
And the other, not flame.
Tyndalus burned
with blue-blood
flames of people’s Englisch;
Wanting holy writ
at the ready in
that vernacular.
More burned with
the red-blood
flames of Roman England
dreading to legalise
everyman as acting pope
Without training
or holiness.
The fuel
was More
and Tyndale.
Both men
were wrong
Both men
were right
But what
colour in
the flame.
Thomas More and
William Tyndale,
each one caused
the other’s death
by martyrdom
Two tallow-wick candles
Meet & burn up against
One another & the heat of
the flame each carries,
intensifies so that the fire
of each burns with being
that consumed its candle
burned, burned with
the light that fires,
fires and inspires.
4 April 2009 © Wayne David Knoll
SIR THOMAS MORE (THOMÆ MORI
Born: February 7, 1478, City of London, England
Died: July 6, 1535, Tower Hill, London, England
Cause of Death: execution by decapitation
Buried: Church of St Peter ad Vincula, England
WILLIAM TYNDALE (GUILLAUME TYNDALUS)
Born: fl. 1484–1496 Gloucestershire, England
Died: c. 6 October 1536 near Vilvoorde, Duchy of Brabant, Seventeen Provinces [Belgium]
Cause of death: Executed by strangling, then burnt at the stake
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