Of worms and chaff

In his poem based on the fifth "O antiphon" - O Oriens , Guite plays on the word "Dayspring" as having the sense of "light" and "water". This is quite striking. Dayspring has always been one of my favorite words in the bible that refer to Christ. Guite's play on Dayspring is one that refers to essence or maybe form or maybe a state of being - "the eternal Prima Vera". Dayspring is something we can't see fully now but we will see it at our "waking" - Guite seems to be calling attention to an inversion of reality before and after death. Although we seem to be "alive" and "awake" this side of death, and death seems to be "sleep", in another sense, the other side of death is where we shall be fully "awake" when we shall be able to see Dayspring clearly because this very Dayspring has overcome death and it's darkness. This is not to say that the darkness we face on th