A Poem and a Photograph for Hill Country: The Broken Chain

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

While photographing grave markers in a cemetery last week, I found an excellent example of the "broken chain" symbol. The carved broken-chain image on the stone of Thomas Christian in Walton Cemetery, Itawamba County, bears mute testimony of the sorrow a missing link has on a family --- a chain is no stronger than its weakest link --- and if a link is missing, the chain is broken. The symbol imagery is strong and evocative.

John Ruskin wrote a long poem, The Broken Chain, which contains lines which may be used to describe the grief one feels over the death of a beloved spouse. The following lines were taken from various portions of The Broken Chain.

. . .The silence of her voice was broken,

As by a gasp of mental pain:

May the faith thou hast forgotten

Bind thee with its broken chain. . . (page 131)

. . . Through the dimly woven forest

Comes the cry of one in pain ---

May the faith thou hast forgotten

Bind thee with its broken chain. . . (page 139)

. . . There was another echo in his ear ---

An under murmur deep and clear,

The faint low sob of one in pain:

May the faith thou hast forgotten

Bind thee with its broken chain. . . (page 146)

. . . Passed on the air, in passion broken,

The faint low sob of one in pain ---

Lo! the faith thou hast forgotten

Bind thee with its broken chain. . . (page 159)

SOURCES:

Broken chain photograph, detail from the grave marker of Thomas Christian, 1827 - 1911, Walton Cemetery, Itawamba County, Mississippi, March 7, 2010, Terry Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi.

The Broken Chain by John Ruskin. From The Complete Works of John Ruskin. New York: Longmans, Green and Company. 1903. Pages 124 - 180.