Meditation on a Bone

A piece of bone, found at Trondhjem in 1901, with the following runic inscription (about A.D. 1050) cut on it: I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend’s detestable wife; better she should be a widow.

Words scored upon a bone,

Scratched in despair or rage —

Nine hundred years have gone;

Now, in another age,

They burn with passion on

A scholar’s tranquil page.

The scholar takes his pen

And turns the bone about,

And writes those words again.

Once more they seethe and shout

And through a human brain

Undying hate rings out.

“I loved her when a maid;

I loathe and love the wife

That warms another’s bed:

Let him beware his life!”

The scholar’s hand is stayed;

His pen becomes a knife

To grave in living bone

The fierce archaic cry.

He sits and reads his own

Dull sum of misery.

A thousand years have flown

Before that ink is dry.

And, in a foreign tongue,

A man, who is not he,

Reads and his heart is wrung

This ancient grief to see,

And thinks: When I am dung,

What bone shall speak for me?

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External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

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Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• Woman And The Weed poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• Willie’s Ladye poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• Waly, Waly poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• Villion’s Ballade Of Good Counsel, To His Friends Of Evil Life poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• Valentine In Form Of Ballade poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• Three Portraits Of Prince Charles poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Wife Of Usher’s Well poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Twa Sisters poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Queen’s Marie poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Odyssey poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Moon’s Minion poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Loving Ballad Of Lord Bateman poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Laird Of Waristoun poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Heir Of Lynne poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Fairy’s Gift poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Elphin Nourrice poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Dowie Dens Of Yarrow poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Douglas Tragedy poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Burial Of Moliere poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang
• The Broomfield Hill poem – Andrew Lang poems by Andrew Lang

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