@3Before the Miracle of the Fishes and the Flies@1 I Praise be to God, and a blessing too at that, and a blessing! For Colum the White, Colum the Dove, hath worshipped; Yea he hath worshipped and made of a desert a garden, And out of the dung of men's souls hath made a sweet savour of burning. II A savour of burning, most sweet, a fire for the altar, This he hath made in the desert; the hell-saved all gladden. Sure he hath put his benison, too, on milchcow and bullock, On the fowls of the air, and the man-eyed seals, and the otter. III But where in his Dûn in the great blue mainland of Heaven God the Allfather broodeth, where the harpers are harping His glory; There where He sitteth, where a river of ale poureth ever, His great sword broken, His spear in the dust, He broodeth. IV And this is the thought that moves in His brain, as a cloud filled with thunder Moves through the vast hollow sky filled with the dust of the stars: What boots it the glory of Colum, since he maketh a Sabbath to bless me, And hath no thought of my sons in the deeps of the air and the sea? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A HOUSE by JOHN COLLINGS SQUIRE PHILIP, KING OF MACEDON by ALCAEUS OF MESSENE S. MATTHIAS by JOSEPH BEAUMONT PASSING HOURS by HELENA A. BOOTH SANDY STAR: 4. THE WAY by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE |