April 3, 2007

• Awarding a Burden of Woe

  

  I am held captive, wrapped in the beautiful robe of Old English poetry. 

  This morning I read Doer’s Lament.  Doer (“the brave one”) is a court-singer who has been replaced by a new minstrel. He rehearses historic adversities and ends each stanza with the refrain

  That evil ended.    So also may this!

  Here is one section:

    He who knows sorrow,     despoiled of joys,
  Sits heavy of mood;    to his heart it seemeth
  His measure of misery     meeteth no end.
  Yet well may he think     how oft in this world
  The wise Lord varies     His ways to men,
  Granting wealth and honor     to many an eorl,
  To others awarding     a burden of woe.

  Do you like riddles?  Here is one for you entitled Book-Moth.  It foreshadows Hamlet’s humor.

  A moth ate a word.     To me it seemed
  A marvelous thing     when I learned the wonder
  That a worm had swallowed,     in darkness stolen,
  The song of a man,     his glorious sayings,
  A great man’s strength;     and the thieving guest
  Was no whit the wiser     for the words it ate.

  • 3:31 pm
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