Gathering up the Fragments: Homiletic Fragment II

Abstract Homiletic Fragment II is a short poem of twenty lines in the Exeter Book of Old English poetry. Here it is argued that the poem is complete and artful, and neither homiletic nor fragmentary. This article explores the poem in its manuscript context and discusses its vocabulary, themes, content, and effectiveness, with a view to better understanding its structure, and the spiritual impulse behind it. A new interpretation and translation is offered. It is suggested that the poem was composed in a monastic context and was intended to encourage the monastic practice of hesychasm , preparation of the individual for prayer and contemplation of the divine.