husband’s suit suggests iniquity. These images
contrast with the supposedly happy occasion of
a wedding. The speaker’s reference to the renun-
ciations (a term often associated with ascetic
self-denial) the bride endured to wear white,
implies that she is a virgin, dutifully waiting
until her wedding night to consummate the mar-
riage. The groom is then viewed as the agent that
can strip the bride of her virginity and, therefore,
her innocence.
Like Gnostics, Manicheans believe that
humans are comprised of matter, or the body,
the main function of which is to harbor the spirit.
The speaker imagines the wedding party walking
past the village’s clay houses. In one sense a
literal description, the clay also suggests the Bib-
lical Adam. Psalms 90:3 states that Adam is
merely a body made of clay. He was made from
dust of the ground (a reference to Genesis 2:7),
and he will be returned to dust, just as the
speaker observes that ultimately bodies return
to the earth. The description of clay houses also
seems to allude to another biblical metaphor in
which the body is described as the physical shel-
ter or home of the spirit. In the second book of
Corinthians, Paul writes that the human body is
a tent to live in, while awaiting true salvation in
heaven. Paul declares that a man-made structure
such as a tent can easily be destroyed (as a clay
house can be), yet the spirits of true believers are
indestructible. Here the poet briefly illustrates
his Christian and Catholic faith, influenced by
Manichean tenets.
Milosz extends this Manichean dualism to
the juxtaposition of humans and nature. As the
people walk the streets of their village, the sur-
rounding landscape is strangely detached from
them. Although the speaker notes that they are
walking past clay houses, he does not see them
interacting with nature. The brown hills, the
manure, and the hens are presented as a separate
scene, without drawing the attention of the wed-
ding party. The sole moment when nature and
humans interact is when people die and their
bodies are returned to the earth. This dualism
expresses a tenet of Manichean thought that
Milosz was particularly drawn to—that people
have no separate intrinsic worth in the natural
order of the things.
Similar to Manichean practice, Gnosti-
cism’s dogma is also characterized by dualism;
however, this dualism concerns the concept of
God. First, God is deemed the omnipotent and
true being, the spiritual essence of all things,
living and non-living. However, there is the
false or flawed God who created an imperfect
world. As such, Gnostics believe that humanity
mirrors this dualism. In this regard, the speaker
does present humans, including the bride and
groom, as flawed characters, who have yet to
realize that their ultimate purpose occurs after
death rather than during their mortal span.
However, despite their shortcomings, they still
retain the light of a merciful and true God,
embodied in their spirit.
Finally, Milosz draws on Gnostic and Man-
ichean doctrine to confront the notion of the
afterlife witnessed through the emancipation of
the spirit from the body. According to Gnostic
belief, the spirit is held captive within this matter
and can only be freed throughgnosis(Greek for
‘‘knowledge’’), which refers to spiritual truths
revealed to those who have fully given their
lives to Gnosticism. It is only through gnosis
that salvation is attained. Gnostics also believe
that a soul has to experience several lives
through reincarnation, emphasized by the
speaker’s description of the spirit as a continu-
ously returning force. In Manichean philosophy,
the spirit is believed to be trapped within the
body and can only be released upon death.
Whereas Gnostics believe that salvation of the
spirit occurs through gnosis, Manicheans believe
it is achieved through asceticism. This strict self-
denial and sacrifice, which demonstrates per-
sonal conviction and spiritual discipline, is sug-
gested in the renunciations endured by the bride
in order to wear white. In both theologies, there
is no specific reference to an eternal home for the
spirit, such as heaven. Unlike the tenets of
Milosz’s Catholicism, these theologies assert
that the spirit has the power to exist either
through reincarnation on earth or in a transcen-
dental state beyond material existence.
The Gnostic and Manichean belief in the
power of the spirit surfaces in stanza 2. When
the body is buried and the spirit is liberated from
matter, the newly released spirit is grandiose. Its
freedom from the body is a huge victory. The
spirit, described as lingering sounds of music, is
at last an independent, immortal, and boundless
entity. But then speaker appears to doubt his
assumptions, perhaps realizing that what is left
for him is the natural world. He next connects
images of humanity with spirit. This is unex-
pected since previous depictions of people inIn Music