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 

• Robert Burns: The Captain’s Lady: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Sweet Tibbie Dunbar: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: I Love My Love In Secret: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Jamie, Come Try Me: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Banks Of Nith: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Young Jockie Was The Blythest Lad: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: On A Bank Of Flowers: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Gard’ner Wi’ His Paidle: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Delia, An Ode : “To the Editor of The Star.-Mr. Printer-If the productions of a simple ploughman can merit a place in the same paper with Sylvester Otway, and the other favourites of the Muses who illuminate the Star with the lustre of genius, your insertion of the enclosed trifle will be succeeded by future communications from-Yours, &c., R. Burns. Ellisland, near Dumfries, 18th May, 1789.” by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Wounded Hare: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Sketch In Verse: Inscribed to the Right Hon. C. J. Fox. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: A New Psalm For The Chapel Of Kilmarnock: On the Thanksgiving-Day for His Majesty’s Recovery. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Epistle To James Tennant Of Glenconner: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Ode On The Departed Regency Bill: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Beware O’ Bonie Ann: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: To Miss Cruickshank, a very Young Lady : Written on the Blank Leaf of a Book, presented to her by the Author. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Caledonia -A Ballad : by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Lines To John M’Murdo, Esq. Of Drumlanrig: Sent with some of the Author’s Poems. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Impromptu Lines To Captain Riddell: On Returning a Newspaper. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: She’s Fair And Fause: by Robert Burns

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

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Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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