Father Lear

Father Lear the king so shaped his bairns

with the wand’s upper hand

the fire’s swanny wing

smooth tippet of the spider

In the very kingdom of herbs and servants

he shaped them

from peace vessels of the animals

from toil of the flesh

from milk horses and the birds of sighed mercy

and the tongue undone

He shaped his bairns

in night’s long harm and in day’s bright psalter

in the seven courts of the north

and with the mild birch of the paternoster

From his ploughing fields and his sweat

his toothèd heart and his waxing wit

Father Lear the king shaped his bairns

for good or ill           this he did