The Death of Knowledge

by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh

The scholars cast the four wild winds
Only Death the last thing sure
And now the Knowledge dwells within
And at the hearth sides of the poor
And so it came to dawn the day
That a visitor passing by
In Gaelic tongue both pure and sure
Got the Iliad in reply
To tales of old the man had known
If to recount he could any
And that was just the start of same
For tales of old the man had many.
Alas today, in the modern age
Of computers, books and internet
We know so much of what is new
And what is old we do forget
The knowledge once more is in the schools
Not at the hearth sides of the poor
And now more than ever
Its death is even more sure.

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