King Alfred's Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

I have wings like a bird, and more swiftly can fly
Far over this earth to the roof of the sky,
And now must I feather thy fancies, O mind,
To leave the mid earth and its earthlings behind.

Stretch'd over the heavens, thou mayst with thy wings
Sport in the clouds and look down on all things,
Yea, far above Fire, that lieth betwixt
The air and the sky, as the Father hath mixt.

Thence with the sun to the stars thou shalt fly,
Thereafter full quickly to float thro' the sky
To the lonely cold planet, which sea-dwellers call
Saturn, on heaven the highest of all.

He is the icy cold star in the highest
That wanders the farthest, and yet as thou fliest
Higher, and farther, and up shalt thou rise
Yea, to the top of the swift rushing skies!

If thou dost rightly, e'en these shalt thou leave:
And then of the true light thy share shalt receive,
Where up over heaven, the Only King reigns,
And under it all the world's being sustains.

This the Wise King, this is He who is found
To rule o'er the kings of all peoples around;
With his bridle hath bitted the heaven and earth,
And guides the swift wain by his might driven forth.

He is the One Judge unswervingly right,
Unchanging in might and unsullied in light;
When to his dwelling place back thou dost roam,
However forgotten, it still is thy home.

If ever again thou shalt thitherward go,
Soon wilt thou say, and be sure it is so,
“This is mine own country in every way,
“The earth of my birth, and my heirdom for aye:

“Hence was I born, and came forth in my time
“Thro' the might of my Maker, the Artist sublime,
“Nor will I go out evermore but stand fast,
“At the will of my Father come hither at last.

And if it should aye be again that thou wilt
Come back to the world in its darkness and guilt,
Thou shalt easily see of these kings and these proud
Who worst have down-trodden this woeridden crowd,

That they too are wretched and woefully poor
Unmighty to do anything anymore,
These, ay even these, beneath whose dread yoke
Now somewhile are trembling this woeridden folk,