made Flesh! The Bread of nature, Thou by word to flesh dost turn: Wine, to Blood of our Creator: If no sense the work discern. Yet the true heart proves no traitor: Faith unaided all shall learn." Here the antithesis is preserved, though at the expense of the vocative case. And surely S. Thomas, in an exact dogmatical poem, would not have spoken of the Blood of our Creator. Mr. Caswall, following up the hint given by the last version, and substituting the apposite pronoun for the vocative, has given, as from his freedom of rhyme might be expected, the best version. "Word made Flesh, the Bread of nature By a word to Flesh He turns: Wine into His Blood He changes: What though sense no change discerns, Only be the heart in earnest, Faith the lesson quickly learns." In both these last translations, however, the panem verum of S. Thomas is not given; and Mr. Caswall brings in the worse than unnecessary article—By a word.
Since the first edition of my book, Hymns Ancient and Modern have produced a translation put together from former ones,—but nearer my own version than to any other. Their fourth verse is their weakest:—
Word made Flesh, True Bread He maketh
By His word His Flesh to be:
Wine His Blood; which whoso taketh
Must from carnal thoughts be free:
Faith alone, though sight forsaketh,
Shows true hearts the Mystery.
It is needless to observe that the Italicised line and a half is not in the original. Forsaketh, too, is scarcely English. I have substituted an alteration of Hymns Ancient and Modern for my original 5th verse.
