 | Poems and Dramas by "Fiona MacLeod" (William Sharp) |  |
172
THE MEDITATION OF COLUM
Before the Miracle of the Fishes and the Flies
I
Praise be to God, and a blessing too at that, and a blessing!For Colum the White, Colum the Dove, hath worshipped;
Yea he hath worshipped and made of a desert a garden,
And out of the dung of men's souls hath made a sweet savour of burning.
II
A savour of burning, most sweet, a fire for the altar,This he hath made in the desert; the hell-saved all gladden.
Sure he hath put his benison, too, on milchcow and bullock,
On the fowls of the air, and the man-eyed seals, and the otter.
173
III
But where in his Dûn in the great blue mainland of HeavenGod the Allfather broodeth, where the harpers are harping His glory;
There where He sitteth, where a river of ale poureth ever,
His great sword broken, His spear in the dust, He broodeth.
IV
And this is the thought that moves in His brain, as a cloud filled with thunderMoves through the vast hollow sky filled with the dust of the stars:
What boots it the glory of Colum, since he maketh a Sabbath to bless me
And hath no thought of my sons in the deeps of the air and the sea?
| Poems and Dramas by "Fiona MacLeod" (William Sharp) | |