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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Poems in English 

• Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on John Rankine by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on John Dove, Innkeeper by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on John Busby, Esq., Tinwald Downs by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on James Grieve by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on Holy Willie by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on Captain Lascelles by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on a noted coxcomb by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on a Noisy Polemic by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph on a Henpecked Squire by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph for William Nicol, High School, Edinburgh by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph for Mr. William Michie, Schoolmaster by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph for Mr. Walter Riddell by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph for Mr. W. Cruickshank by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph for Mr. Gabriel Richardson, Brewer by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph for James Smith by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epitaph for Gavin Hamilton, Esq. by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epistle to William Simson by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epistle to the Rev. John M’Math by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Epistle to Robert Graham, Esq., of Fintry by Robert Burns by Robert Burns

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