The Meters of Boethius · late 9th or early 10th century
Meter 6
Translated by Walter John Sedgefield, King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900)
Then Wisdom again unlocked her word-hoard,
Her tale of sooth sang in these words:
‘While the bright sun most clear is beaming,
Gleaming in heaven, gloom enwrappeth
Over the world all other bodies ;
For their light is nought, nothing at all,
When set against the sun’s great brightness.
When softly bloweth from south and west
The wind ’neath heav’n, then soon wax
The flowers of the field, fain to be able.
But the stiff storm-wind, when it strongly bloweth
From out of the north-east, how soon it nippeth
The rose’s beauty ! By the northern blast
The spacious ocean is helpless spurned
Till strongly heaving it striketh the beach.
Alas, that in the world nothing weareth
Firm and lasting long on this earth ?
Cite this text
MLA
Alfred, King. The Meters of Boethius, Meter 6. Translated by Walter John Sedgefield, King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/work/meters-of-boethius/6/.
Chicago
Alfred, King. The Meters of Boethius, Meter 6. Translated by Walter John Sedgefield, King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/work/meters-of-boethius/6/.