syker

I thank yow Sir sayde Partonope / He wende alle this had bene ryght wele / His olde love was forgete eche dele / He kysseth his love he maketh her chere / He was in wylle had he hadde leysere / And place this ys syker as day / To haue pleyed the comoun play / Of which these lovers haue such plesaunce / ffor melioure was clene oute of remembraunce.

And loo, thys hous, of which I write, Syker be ye, hit nas not lyte, For hyt was sixty myle of lengthe.

(1959-76) As the particular syntax highlights, this all-inclusive catalogue of a plethora of disparate things in a place of coordinateness and expansiveness ("And loo, thys hous, of which I write, / Syker be ye, hit nas not lyte, / For hyt was sixty myle of lengthe" [1977-79]) conjures up the universe-in-miniature of the Gothic cathedral, whose overload of images (statues, sculptural decoration, stained glass, etc.) represents in microscopic figurations the various aspects, both bright and dark, of the human world.