ARCH-SCHOLAR they'll call you, <br />Kuno Mayer, <br />Who know the word <br />Behind the word <br />The men of learning . . . <br />But who will tell them <br />Of the blackbird <br />That your heart held? <br /> <br />On an old thorn-tree <br />By an ancient rath <br />You heard him sing, <br />And with runes you charmed him <br />Till he stayed with you, <br />Giving clear song. <br /> <br />He sang o'er all <br />That Maravaun <br />Told King Guire; <br />And he told you how <br />Bran heard the singing <br />Of a lovely woman <br />And sailed for Faerie; <br />And of how slain princes <br />Kept tryst with women <br />Loved beyond <br />The pain of death, <br />In days when still <br />The boat of Mananaun <br />Bore towards Eirinn! <br /> <br />Arch-scholar they'll call you <br />Nay, Rune-master! <br />You read in texts <br />Not words only, <br />But runes of old time; <br />And when you spoke them <br />A curlew cried <br />Over grass-waste Tara, <br />And a cuckoo called <br />From the height of Cashel, <br />And an eagle flew <br />From Emain Macha! <br /> <br />Ochone, ochone! <br />That we'll see no more <br />In the Eastern or <br />The Western World <br />Your great head over <br />The lectern bending, <br />Nor hear your lore <br />By a pleasant fireside. <br /> <br />But the runes you've read <br />Have given us more <br />Than the sword might win us: <br />May kind saints of Eirinn <br />Be beside you <br />Where birds on the Living <br />Tree sing the Hours!<br /><br />Padraic Colum<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rune-master/
