This is certainly not the best poem as poetry goes, but I find the perspective... refreshing. The following is taken from John Eldredge's book Wild at Heart. "A few years ago a good man gave me a copy of a poem Ezra Pound wrote about Christ, called "Ballad of the Goodly Fere." It's become my favorite. Written from the perspective of one of the men who followed Christ, perhaps Simon Zelotes, it'll make a lot more sense if you know that fere is an Old English word that means mate, or companion: Ha' we lost the goodliest fere o' all For the priests and the gallows tree? Aye lover he was of brawny men O' ships and the open sea. When they came wi' a host to take Our Man His smile was good to see, "First let these go!" quo' our Goodly Fere, "Or I'll see ye damned," says he. Aye he sent us out through the crossed high spears And the scorn of his laugh rang free, "Why took ye not me when I walked about Alone in the town?" says he. Oh we drunk his "Hale" in the good red wine When last we made company, No capon priest was the Goodly Fere But a man o' men was he. I ha' seen him drive a hundred men Wi' a bundle o' cords swung free, That they took the high and holy house For their pawn and treasury... I ha' seen him cow a thousand men On the hills o' Galilee, They whined as he walked out calm between, Wi' his eyes like the grey o' the sea, Like the sea that brooks no voyaging With the winds unleashed and free, Like the sea that he cowed at Genseret Wi' twey words spoke' suddenly. A master of men was the Goodly Fere, A mate of the wind and sea, If they think they ha' slain our Goodly Fere They are fools eternally." Incidentally, Wild at Heart is an amazing book. |