Poetry Time

Poetry:

Nicholas Kristof writes, "Mr. Obama, it's time for some poetry."

I like poetry. I'm especially fond of this:

And the eyes of Guthrum altered,
For the first time since morn....

As such a tall and tilted sky
Sends certain snow or light,
So did the eyes of Guthrum change,
And the turn was more certain and more strange
Than a thousand men in flight.

For not till the floor of the skies is split,
And hell-fire shines through the sea,
Or the stars look up through the rent earth's knees,
Cometh such rending of certainties,
As when one wise man truly sees
What is more wise than he....

King Guthrum was a great lord,
And higher than his gods--
He put the popes to laughter,
He chid the saints with rods,

He took this hollow world of ours
For a cup to hold his wine;
In the parting of the woodways
There came to him a sign....

Far out to the winding river
The blood ran down for days,
When we put the cross on Guthrum
In the parting of the ways.