Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THORVALDUR THORODDSEN, by THORSTEINN GISLASON First Line: Over lava-beds Last Line: And works endure. Subject(s): Thoroddsen, Thorvaldur (1855-1921) | ||||||||
OVER lava beds, Sandy barrens And glaciers vast The trail has led him. Hidden treasures Of precious knowledge Sought in the wastes Of his native land. Young was he When the way he chose Which none had known And none had travelled; There read the hidden And mystic runes, Kept by the trolls Through countless ages, There from giants In giant halls And fairy folk In peaks and passes, And the guardians Of hidden fires, Learned of his country's Past and present. From the mountain-peaks His eagle eye Scanned his country's Open pages. Either glacial Or fiery fingers Inscribed on rocks A wondrous story. None before him Read so wisely The secret lore Of land and people. No one thus Intently hearkened To the beating heart Of Hecla's country. None before him So construed The trend in thought Of times departed. And to no one Had his country Thus laid bare Its inmost soul. For the unknown tongue Of unseen patrons And the fairy-tongue Of founts and rivers And the dwarf-tongue In dark cliffs spoken -- All these he learned And aptly wrote. In the valleys Along our coast-line Lies merely half Our world of story. The other half Is seen only From the airy haunts Of hawk and eagle. Hence his full And first-hand knowledge And the wise thoughts Of his writings. While his native land Is known in story Shall his honored name And works endure. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE INDIAN UPON GOD by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS HOPE AND DESPAIR by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE THREE SONGS OF LOVE (CHINESE FASHION): 2. RIVER SONG by WILLIAM A. BEATTY FALLING STARS by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER LIBERTINE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT OF FIVE DAYS OLD by ELIZABETH BOYD IRON HEEL by ANNE MILLAY BREMER SEPTEMBER, 1939 by VERA MARY BRITTAIN |
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