Dec 15

Remember we promised you a look at a contrapuntal poem? Well we had to follow Alice down a rabbit hole to get this one for you. It turns out that contrapuntal poem was originally in Latin. We discovered this while digging through Google for it. Could we find it, could we never.

Turns out that’s because read one way the poem’s Catholic, read another way it’s Anglican. You’ll see what we mean in a second. Anyway, we remember the opening line as a very Catholic one. Every scholar ever (and Google’s SEO, who knew/!) remembers it as Anglican. No wonder we couldn’t find it! But never say we aren’t excellent at our job (sort of spying and for spying read research).

Here’s your poem. You have to read it twice. Once reading left to right as if the two stanzas are a long one, and once in columns. We did not give you the Latin, because, well…Look, you have enough work reading this thing twice. Did anyone desperately want to read it four times?

We thought not.

The Double Faced Creed

I hold for faith What England’s church allows,
What Rome’s church saith, My conscience disavows.
Where the king is head The flock can take no shame,
The flock’s misled, Who hold the pope supreme.
Where the altar’s drest The worship’s scarce divine,
The people’s blest, Whose table’s bread and wine.
He’s but an ass Who their communion flies,
Who shuns the mass, Is Catholic and wise.

Oh, the tea. About the tea. Original Himilayan Green tea. It’s very nice. You don’t have to drink it six different ways to arrive at this conclusion. It’s just very lovely, uncomplicated green tea. Unlike say, the poems lobbed at you by weird choirless choristers.