Holy Matrimony
John Keble, 1822

[ reprinted from the Hymnal of The Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the United States of America, 1916. ]

The context of "Holy Matrimony" in The Sound and the Fury
 

The voice that breathed o'er Eden,
That earliest wedding day
The primal marriage blessing,
It hath not passed away.

Still in the pure espousal
Of Christian man and maid,
The holy Three are with us,
The threefold grace is said.

Be present, aweful Father,
To give away this bride,
As Eve thou gav'st to Adam
Out of his own pierced side:

Be present, Son of Mary,
To join their loving hands,
As thou didst bind two natures
In thine eternal bands!

Be present, holiest Spirit,
To bless them as they kneel,
As thou, for Christ the Bridegroom,
The heavenly Spouse dost seal!

O spread thy pure wing o'er them,
Let no ill power find place,
When onward to thine altar
Their hallowed path they trace,

To cast their crowns before thee
In perfect sacrifice,
Till to the home of gladness
With Christ's own Bride they rise. Amen
 

NOTES

1. Context of Keble's poem in The Sound and the Fury: Quentin is reminded of Keble's poem, "Holy Matrimony," while he is thinking of the weather. He is reminded of "the voice that breathed o'er Eden," which is God's voice, heard in the wind over the garden of Eden. Keble's poem glorifies marriage in prayer and calls marriage an eternal bond between a man, a woman, and God. Quentin imagines his relationship with his sister Caddy as a similar holy union. He believes that he and Caddy are like Adam and Eve, the primordial ancestors of the human race. As such, they are burdened with a tremendous responsibility. They are blessed but also doomed to separation because of Eve's sin. Her curiousity about the forbidden fruit tree is much like Caddy's curiousity about Damuddy's funeral, which Caddy peeks at by climbing the pear tree. But when Caddy becomes a woman, Quentin imagines that he has been injured, like Adam was injured when God took his rib to create Eve. The threat of losing Caddy - and therefore part of himself - is Quentin's separation anxiety. For him, losing Caddy to womanhood is a tragic loss of biblical proportions. Quentin, sympathetic to the stories of Adam's loss of a rib and Jesus' spear injury on the cross, imagines himself as an analogue to Christ. Accordingly, for him Caddy becomes a likeness or simulation of the bride of Christ. By infusing his own life with mythological, fantastic expectations, Quentin creates a suicidal martyrdom for himself so, like Adam and Jesus, he can justify his pain as suffering in atonement for the sins of others. [Context contributed by Joel Deshaye, 2000.]

See also Genesis 3:8, "The Fall of Man":

8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.