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People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook
Venantius Fortunatus, bishop, c.530-c.603
Written on an Island off the Breton Coast
Venantius Fortunatus was a poet, born c. 530 in Treviso, near
Ravenna in Italy. He spent his time as court poet to the Merovingians.
After visiting the tomb of St. Martin of tours at St. Hilary at
Poitiers, he decided to enter a monastery. He continued to write
poetry, some of which have a permanent place in Catholic hymnody,
for instance the Easter season hymns Vexilla Regis and the Pange
Lingua (Sing, O my tongue, of the battle). Three of four years
before he died he was made bishop of Poitiers.
Written on an Island off the Breton Coast
You at God's altar stand, His minister
And Paris lies about you and the Seine:
Around this Breton isle the Ocean swells,
Deep water and one love between us twain.
Wild is the wind, but still thy name is spoken;
Rough is the sea: it sweeps not o'er they face.
Still runs my lover for shelter to its dwelling,
Hither, O heart, to thine abiding place.
Swift as the waves beneath an east wind breaking
Dark as beneath a winter sky the sea,
So to my heart crowd memories awaking,
So dark, O love, my spirit without thee
Source.
From: trans. Helen Waddell, in Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse,
ed. Stephen Coote, (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1983),
112
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© Paul Halsall, 2023
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© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 20 Oct 2025 [CV]
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