Wednesday, December 11, 2019

"But You Will Sing for Me" - a poem for Christmas

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

“But You Will Sing for Me”

In the Abbey of Whitby, Long Ago

“But you will sing                              for me,” the angel said
To bashful Caedmon                         on one Christmas night
“But not to me                                    but to the Builder of all
And to His purposes                          in Creation

“But you will sing                              for me,” the angel said
“And you will sing                             sing for the abbess
And for her people                            of the Builder of all
And of their places                            in Creation

“But you will sing                              for me,” the angel said
And so it was                                      that Caedmon sang



(There is no indication that the feast was at Christmas, and no indication that it was not, so I have presumed to set Caedmon’s hymn within the Twelve Days.)

(The Anglo-Saxon caesura, the slightest pause within each line, is meant to be visually neat; the transfer to the InterGossip might not keep it so. In reading the poem the first half of each line should have two accents, and the second half another two.)

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