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

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Poems in English 

• English Poetry. Philip James Bailey. Festus – 41. Филип Джеймс Бэйли. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Philip James Bailey. Festus – 44. Филип Джеймс Бэйли. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. The Blasphemy of Guns. Элла Уилкокс. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Algernon Charles Swinburne. The Triumph of Time. Алджернон Чарльз Суинбёрн. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. William Barnes. Second Collection. The Heäre. Уильям Барнс. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Isaac Watts. Hymn 2. Исаак Уоттс. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Henry Livingston. To the Memory of Sarah Livingston. Генри Ливингстон. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Edna St. Vincent Millay. Assault. Эдна Сент-Винсент Миллей. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Lucy Maud Montgomery. As the Heart Hopes. Люси Мод Монтгомери. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Rupert Chawner Brooke. In Examination. Руперт Брук. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Percy Bysshe Shelley. Satan Broken Loose. Перси Биши Шелли. Тень Ада by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. David Herbert Lawrence. Whales Weep Not!. Дэвид Герберт Лоуренс. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Thomas Aird. The Devil’s Dream on Mount Aksbeck. Томас Эрд. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. George Eliot. How Lisa Loved the King. Джордж Элиот. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Charles Lockhart. Epistle to a Friend, with a Copy of Burns’s Letters. Чарльз Локкарт. Послание другу при возвращении ему томиков стихов Бернса by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Charles Wesley. Hark! A Voice Div­ides the Sky. Чарльз Уэсли. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Robert William Service. My Room. Роберт Уильям Сервис. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. John Townsend Trowbridge. Midwinter. Джон Таунсенд Троубридж. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Robert William Service. Dark Glasses. Роберт Уильям Сервис. by Poetry In English
• English Poetry. Robert William Service. Dark Glasses. Роберт Уильям Сервис. by Poetry In English

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