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From: "Jean Rice" <>
Subject: [IGW] "The Plougher" -- Longford's Padraic COLUM (b. 1881)
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 16:10:07 -0800

Padraic COLUM, born in Co. Longford in 1881, was an original member of the group of Irish writers that made Dublin's Abbey Theatre famous. He moved to the United States in 1914 and wrote young people's books based on myth and folklore.

THE PLOUGHER

Sunset and silence! A man: around him earth savage, earth
broken;
Beside him two horses -- a plough!

Earth savage, earth broken, the brutes, the dawn-man there in
the sunset,
And the Plough that is twin to the Sword, that is founder of
cities!

Brute-tamer, plough-maker, earth-breaker! Canst hear? There
are ages between us.
Is it praying you are as you stand there alone in the sunset?

Surely our sky-born gods can be naught to you, earth child
and earth master?
Surely your thoughts are of Pan, or of Wotan, or Dana?

Yet, why give thought to the gods? Has Pan led your brutes
where they stumble?
Has Dana numbed pain of the child-bed, or Wotan put hands
to your plow?

What matter your foolish reply! O man, standing lone and
bowed earthward,
Your task is a day near its close. Give thanks to the night-
giving God.

Slowly the darkness falls, the broken lands blend with the
savage;
The brute-tamer stands by the brutes, a head's breadth only
above them.

A head's breath? Ay, but therein is hell's depth, and the
height up to heaven,
And the thrones of the gods and their halls, their chariots,
purples and splendours.

-- Padraic Colum (b. 1881)

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• [IGW] "The Plougher" -- Longford's Padraic COLUM (b. 1881) by "Jean Rice" <>