Save the Cathedral! (2)

The Problem

 

With every Bannockburn there comes a Boyne.

The gods grant grain, alleviate our lives,

then send us weevils, whitefly, worms (and wives!)

They raise us up �" then knee us in the groin

 

vaulting.  Winchester was built on bog.

This marvel of the medieval mind

was sitting on (they were appalled to find),

nine hundred-year-old spongy, soggy logs. 

 

And, year on year, it sagged a little more.

As fissures felt their way around the font,

and lancet windows listed to the west,

so flawed at lauds, and worse at terce for sure:

now none at nones was feeling nonchalant.

The church was sinking slowly to its rest.

Author's Note

(1) Bannockburn: This famous battle, fought in the year 1314, resulted in a major victory for the Scots over their oppressors, the English.
(2) Boyne: A different battle, with a different outcome: in 1690, the English army defeated an Irish-Scottish force, thus securing English hegemony over the British Celts.
(3) soggy logs: The timber raft, laid down as the base of the cathedral in the eleventh century, had completely decayed and the irreplaceable church was in immediate danger of breaking up and sinking into the marsh.
(4) lauds, terce, nones: Three examples of the medieval canonical hours, times of the day when certain prayers were said or sung. They are relevant here because the great English cathedrals, such as Winchester, preserve this ancient style of worship.