Orpheus and Eurydice

As mentioned a few weeks ago - I'll keep this blipfoto journal mostly about our hill-walking exploits ... but will occasionally intersperse it with some poetry ;-)

So --- been down in Northumberland for a couple of days, and visited the ever-wonderful Barter Books in Alnwick.

Managed to purchase this 1955, limited-edition copy of Sydney Goodsir Smith's "Orpheus and Eurydice" ...

... here's the final few verses from the Epilogue:


Orpheus and Eurydice

Man neer can learn the sempil leid :
Nane but the gods can conquer deid.
For he is born to spiel the hicht
That stends frae skreek-o-daw til nicht,
That breenges frae meridian

Doun til the pits o midnicht nune ---
And aye and aye ilkane bairntime
Will hae an Orpheus and his queyne ;
They are unmutabil, eterne,
As the white moth maun seek the sterne,
In them the gods is justified
For in them sheens their ain godhead :
Euridicie and Orpheus pruve
The micht o a weird, the licht o a luve.

---

Sydney Goodsir Smith (1915-1975)