The Ducking Stool In Leominster Church

Gold cherry

By Kilb50

Tue, 23 Apr 2019
  • 3545 reads
13 comments
 

Once it was a tree standing proud in a forest.

Butchered, dipped and planed by a master

Justice re-fashioned it to bear the weight of those

Whose misdemeanours offended the Lord.

 

It squats now in Priory Church - a grotesque

Figure in cooling holy shadows

Conscious of its own imperfections.

Does it suggest anything, I wonder,

 

To the worshippers and plain curious

Brought here by their travel guides ?

A simple pagan beauty, perhaps -

Honourable in a way only our forefathers

 

Could understand, the gnarled joints

And broken wheel, the cross-beam

That balances a see-saw throne, each part

Built with precision and love for the craft

 

Before it was corrupted by Father, Son

And Holy Ghost. A scold was the last

To be paraded through town - a pantomime

For the mob - her bonnet torn, her skirts

 

Muddied by an infectious crowd

For whom old women were witches

And poets were devils and those who deviated

In their prayers were roughly re-confirmed

 

In the coldest, deepest water.

Once it was a tree standing proud

In a forest. Let this strange creature

Rest now in cooling holy shadows.

   Let it rest.

Certificate 12
Poem

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

Marvellous use of an object at rest as a gateway to the past, and to reflections on human nature.  I could see the ducking stool, and feel the cool and maybe slightly musty atmosphere that you find in so many old churches that lay their history out for us to see, if we know how to look.  I like the way the structure of the poem continuously invites us further in to the story, and to further thought.  Lovely piece.  

Submitted by Kilb50 on

Thanks airy & eds. The stool in Leominster is one of the few remaining examples on show. Although primarily a punishment for women, merchants who were found guilty of offering short measures might also find themselves ducked in the river.

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Wonderful - thank you Kilb. a well deserved cherry!

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

A survivor of the past brings its own echoes, subtly and insistently drawing us back through time.  This is our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day.  Do share/retweet if you enjoy it too. 

Image:  In the Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Submitted by Kilb50 on

Thanks for PoD eds!

 

Submitted by celticman on

poets are still devils, but only if they're good. well done. you devil. 

 

Submitted by Kilb50 on

Thanks as always celtic. And on behalf of all Villa fans RIP Billy McNeill.Great player.

 

Submitted by celticman on

it was actually a blessing Billy McNeil died. He had dementia. A great player and manager. He had none of the riches of modern players, but all the medals and memories, including European triumph. Villa did it too, Peter Withe, but we were the first British club. 

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Interesting piece. The tree, once an ordinary sapling, with so many stories to tell and still causing intrigue inside an old church. It's hard to believe punishing nagging wives and mean merchants in this manner was considered normal...well not that hard.

 

Submitted by Kilb50 on

Thanks for reading & your comment Jane.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Having spent time this afternoon staring up through branches where leaves are beginning to come out, it's a shock to be reminded how trees were once bent to the torturous will of people. These days they are just in the way, or dying from diseases or stress, but once they were one of the main materials, whether beams in Notre Dame or ducking stools in Leominster, two sides of how man saw God instead of looking in Nature

 

Submitted by Kilb50 on

Thanks for reading & your comment Di_Hard.

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Loved this this slip back in time.