Friday, April 27, 2007

Light in the darkness

It was in an English class at NU that I read my favorite metaphor for life. We read some Old English poetry. I can't remember the name of this poem. I think the attribution was simply traditional. I can't find it again. I'll describe it, but its a shame I can't share the real thing.

A bird flies alone through complete darkness. Suddenly ahead is a square of blazing light. The bird flies through the square and into a dining hall where a banquet is in full roar. Light, heat, music, laughter, as the bird soars over the festivities, and out through the window at the other end of the hall, returning to the long night.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I love that. I wish I could read the poem.

Matt Dick said...

It sounds like William Blake to me.

dqcdtqiz

Josh Gentry said...

William Blake has some very cool metaphysical poetry. This is way before Blake, though.

JimII said...

We live in the internet age, because it seems weird to me that you couldn't immediately locate an obscure piece of poetry that you know some of the words from. I actually understand why it would be really tricky in this case, but my first reaction is, "That's weird, isn't it on the internet?"

Anonymous said...

It's from Bede's Ecclesiastical History Book 2 Chapt. 13, a sparrow flying through the hall.

Josh said...

Anonymous, so it is! Thank you!

There you go Jim. This was a tough one to find by search engine without remembering some more specifics, but the Internet has provided, none-the-less.

Blog Archive