ABSTRACT
As E. Ann Matter suggests in her book, The Voice of the author's Beloved, Bernard and Origen share an ardent concern for the union of the soul with the divine; the association of the Song with the love between God and soul is present from Origen onwards. As Origen writes in his commentary on the Song, the material oil represents the ointment of the Holy Spirit with which Christ was anointed at his Incarnation; the likening of Christ's name to the pouring out of oil symbolises Christ's emptying of himself, by which the world received 'the fullness of the Divine Spirit'. Hopkins perhaps follows Origen's exegesis of the Song, which specifically relates the pouring forth of fragrance to the charity of God poured forth in human hearts by the Holy Ghost. Hopkins turns to the Song because of its sacramental significance, and because it represents the heart of mystical Christianity, and demonstrates too the practice of mystical allegory.
