A mass for the dead
William Gibson
- New York Atheneum 1968
- 431 p.
Quare Tristis Es Of all such earthy melt Introit Beginning Work Now let me conjure Introibo Kyrie Green hearts, and stalker October end Kyrie Eleison After a quarrel Paternoster Forever Mutely Drown Lavabo Survivor in Orchard The plot where the garden lived Family Tree Lavabo inter Innocentes Memento Tobia's prayer Or Mud like me Memento Famulorum Sanctus To all their blackened ears Preface Is live, and uncurls Growing In personis proprietas Burning bush Confiteor And began with goodbye Jingle Cogitatione, Verbo, et Opere Midwork Between sleep and daylight Epistle A gift of suns Offertory Fifty Blood in the leaf In the eye of my father Pod Ne Cadant in Obscurum Dies Irae December 28th Lacrimosa Dies Illa Sunset I saw by To my survivors Agnus Dei The green is back Credo The Wit flowing under the world April fool Of rag and spit and eye Apology for no poems In Unum Deum Gloria Lullaby An exaltation of larks Ending work Et in Terra Pax Ite, Missa Est Is, Now
This is written in remembrance of Gibson's deceased parents and in honor of their lives. In reflecting on them he in turn makes it a tribute to parenthood and a dedication to his own children. Gibson's language is striking in its poignancy. Despite the title, this is not a religious work, but a work of love from a child to parent and from the child-become-parent to his own children. Interspersed between the reminiscences of his parents and his childhood, Gibson inserts achingly beautiful epistles to his children for their guidance about life and parenting.