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Posted by: njisley

Original: 6/27/2007 11:55 PM
Comments: 3
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
 

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.

 Posted 6/27/2007 11:55 PM - 3 comments

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Visit ladyancilla's Xanga Site!
I do like that poem...although, I am frankly amazed that Ezra Pound could have written it. 
Posted 6/28/2007 12:32 PM by ladyancilla - reply

Visit lisley's Xanga Site!
really? because clearly if we're too lazy to write a serious blog on one of the six topics rolling around, we're also clearly too odd to write our blogs in ENGLISH!!!
Posted 6/28/2007 11:19 PM by lisley - reply

Visit Loquacist's Xanga Site!
Isley!
Posted 7/31/2007 9:39 AM by Loquacist - reply


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