Three Minutes with Newman
The demons in the Dream of Gerontius, Part 5
August 31, 2024
This is the fourth post in the series on St. John Henry Newman’s remarkable poem, The Dream of Gerontius, which takes us on the journey of a Christian man’s passage from life to death. After his death, when the soul has left the body, Gerontius becomes aware that he is not alone, but in the company of his “oldest friend,” his Guardian Angel, as described in the previous post.
This Angel is a comforting presence to him and very real, though time and space have been left behind. Gerontius’ soul is moving towards the encounter with the living God and judgment. Far from being a picture card sweet description of what death might be, in this vision, the angels present also include the fallen angels, those we call demons. Part of the power of this poem is that Newman did not shy away from this dread thing, the powers of darkness which roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Of course they will be there at our death. We wear our scapulars, we ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for us at the hour of our death, we pray for final perseverance, and we hope to be anointed by a priest.
Newman describes this imagined journey in such a personal way, that reading and meditating on it gives words to our fears and gives comfort to these fears. There are few other works of literature that tackle this, the personal encounter with demons at death. Newman makes the malevolence real, all based on Catholic doctrine. He also makes the benevolence combating that malevolence real, in a faith building glorious poetic portrayal of Catholic teaching.
These demons first appear just before Gerontius dies, and they are terrible. The frightened Gerontius calls out:
“And worse and worse,
Some bodily form of ill
Floats on the wind, with many a loathsome curse
Tainting the hallowed air, and laughs and flaps
Its hideous wings.”
This imagery is perhaps predictable, but in the movement of the poem, this is a way to introduce that the demons are present, to build foreboding. As Gerontius clings to life, the soul struggles whether or not to leave the body. This struggle adds heightened drama to the final agony, as the moment is sometimes called. This is not the cliché sentimental hand reaching from a tunnel of light as is often depicted. But benevolence abounds too. At last, Gerontius dies, and the soul, freed from the body, feels release. Gerontius’ Guardian Angel is now bearing him to judgment. As Gerontius’ soul progresses, we get the next intimation of demonic presence. Gerontius again describes sounds:
“But hark! upon my sense
Comes a fierce hubbub, which would make me fear,
Could I be frighted.”
Gerontius’ soul, no longer with earthly ears, “senses” instead of “hears” hubbub. This line especially is emphasized by meter and syntax, the expected iambic feet are replaced with an initial stress in a dactyl along with a reversed iamb, a trochee: COMES a fierce HUBbub. The line itself indicates hubbub, an onomatopoeic word, which means “a loud, confused noise, as of many voices;” the meter also has been “confused,” echoing the noise of the demons as they are approached.
The Angel tells Gerontius that indeed, the “sudden howl” is from assembled demons in a middle region, a region that Satan himself formerly controlled to mount his attack on humans, like Job, now controlled by the fallen angels, in hopes that they “gather souls for hell.” Is Gerontius impervious to these demons? Will they try to snatch his soul? The thought is terrifying, for they are “Hungry and wild, to claim their property.” The Angel describes the “sour” “uncouth” “dissonance” of the demons. This is where knowledge of Newman’s understanding of universal harmony helps in appreciation of his word choice. The word “dissonance” means: “lack of harmony” referring to music but other things as well. God’s created world is orderly and harmonious … by definition, the angels who rebelled have refused to participate in this harmony. They are dissonant.
And then the demons begin their mocking chant, Newman employing mostly a three beat line. This is a clever metrical change which indicates the un-natural, a scrambling of the iambic meter; English is naturally iambic, so any sustained inversion of the iamb can seem “un-natural.”
But not only the meter indicates that the demons are malevolent, their words too – they seek to belittle and confuse the soul, to taunt him with the notion that it is possible for a human, who is nothing but a “low-born clod” “of brute earth” to attain what they had lost, the fallen angels who once had dwelt in “the realm of light.” This whole section of the demons’ taunt is filled with theological importance and sound doctrine, but crafted into a sing-song, drumbeat of verse, emphasizing the scorn of the demons. After several lines of the demonic derision, the fallen angels become pointed and personal in their attacks indicating knowledge of the person who has died. This is pure literary mastery.
The demons mount their attack against each individual soul, showing a creepy intimacy. Gerontius is called a “psalm-droner” who is “canting,” or hypocritical. He is called a “slave,” i.e. not independent like the fallen angels because Gerontius follows the “tyrant” God. The Guardian Angel describes these demons, once angels, as caged animals, “beasts of prey” (hungry for souls) who are doomed, despite their big talk, to incessant “pacing to and fro.” Does this mean they are unable to steal Gerontius’ soul? The tension is palpable.
The demonic chant continues, with the fallen angels bragging about their self proclaimed better situation. Here Newman is very clever. Since he was a convert during a time of great suspicion regarding Catholicism, he knows first hand of the derogatory remarks made about Catholics. He puts these into the mouths of the demons, who scoff at the notion of saints, calling saints “a bundle of bones” which “fools adore,” i.e. in relics. Mocking and belittling. These saints, so say the demons, will merely “rattle” and “stink,” or corrupt for they are nothing special, disparaging the belief of Gerontius, but to what end? The demon chant will now include actual laughing. Interspersed with the three beat lines of the mocking demons will come several lines of “Ha! Ha!” unexpected and very effective, two stressed syllables spat out in disgust at the recently alive Gerontius. The demons make fun of the now bodiless Gerontius, “no flesh hath he” as they proceed to mock another Catholic custom, that of bodily penance, which priests “prate” or teach nonsense, that penance might win “guerdon” or reward.
And what of this demonic presence after our death? We are relieved when the soul of Gerontius proclaims them “impotent,” reminding, though, that on earth they DO have power. Thankfully, the poem emphasizes that Gerontius has never been without aid during this passage from life to death. He has been buoyed by the prayers of his friends who are by his side, and by the priest and the prayers and rituals of the Church, the Latin words of these prayers worked into the poetic line by Newman as Gerontius nears his death. But most especially, his Guardian Angel has been there with him.
The Soul (of Gerontius), we find, is comforted knowing that his Angel is clasping him. Gerontius, safely with his Angel, is ready to pass the demons and receive his judgment.
No where else in English literature is the reality of those last moments made more vivid. English professor and novelist, Maurice Francis Egan writes, “Gerontius is your soul, my soul, any soul which may be fortunate enough to satisfy the judging and merciful God. No poet has ever presented the condition of the soul, as made known by the theology of the Catholic Church, so forcibly and appealingly as Cardinal Newman.”
