The Thing of Things

Though the etymology
Is uncertain for -emnis,
The root of sol or sollus

Is whole, unbroken, complete.
Thus, in Latin, sollemnis,
Fixed, formal ceremony,

Some kind of a whole -emnis,
Becomes religious in French,
Ceremonial, a vow,

Reverential and binding,
And now, in general, solemn,
With the dictionary note,

Uncertain in origin.
But it was a real thing, once.
It must have been—the emnis,

Whatever it signified,
But also the word itself.
Each word is a thing of things.