A Song for Simeon: The Difference the Letter Makes: Prayer, Self-Criticism, Validity

Abstract

Deriving from Christian understanding, which makes the Incarnation a fulfillment of Incarnation, this poem stands in a certain relation with Judaism, the faith of the poem’s aged speaker, who awaits the Messiah’s coming. Rather than a straightforward spiritual autobiography, this popular, but critically neglected, poem works like a dramatic monologue. An ethical, upright, and righteous person, Simeon simply and precisely waits, skeptical, lamenting the severe demands exacted by Christianity. Of critical importance to the poem is its title: “for” appears where “of” is surely expected. The poem is Simeon’s words held up as a mirror for him to see himself.