User:Michael Thomas Jones: Difference between revisions
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Created page with "THE RUIN (A Modern Alliterative Translation & Completion) Note: The original Anglo-Saxon poem is fragmentary due to manuscript damage. The following version blends translation and creative reconstruction. The Ruin is a description of a deserted Roman city, probably at Bath. The poet musing on the ruins describes what he encountered and saw in poetic style. The poem is a part of what is called the Exeter folio which contains scripts of Anglo-Saxon poetry and riddles. It..." |
Replaced content with "I am creating a wiki to share my common places with students and teachers." |
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I am creating a wiki to share my common places with students and teachers. |
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THE RUIN |
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(A Modern Alliterative Translation & Completion) |
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Note: The original Anglo-Saxon poem is fragmentary due to manuscript damage. The following version blends translation and creative reconstruction. The Ruin is a description of a deserted Roman city, probably at Bath. The poet musing on the ruins describes what he encountered and saw in poetic style. The poem is a part of what is called the Exeter folio which contains scripts of Anglo-Saxon poetry and riddles. It was most likely transcribed by a monk or cleric at Exeter England. |
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Robert N. Taylor, 2025. |
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Wondrous is this wall-stone, wasted by Wyrd, |
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Broken by battle, battered by time. |
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Mighty the makers, memories gone, |
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Shattered the strongholds, sunlit yet silent. |
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Rime-scoured ramparts, roofless halls, |
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Frost has gripped them, fire has gnawed. |
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Time and its talons took what was proud, |
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Gnawed the bright walls—great was the ruin! |
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Stones once stood, storm-fast, wide-spanning halls, |
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High-gabled homes, now hollow with age. |
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The halls are fallen, the hearths are cold, |
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The revel is ended, the rulers are dust. |
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Gone are the guards, the golden light, |
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The banquets, the bliss, the boast of men. |
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Once gold gleamed on graven gates, |
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Bright were the bath-halls, beams on the roof, |
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Lofty the towers that touched the sky— |
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Pride of a people, princes long dead. |
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Hot flowed the springs, hollowed in stone, |
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Wondrously walled, welling with heat, |
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Steam curling skyward, scented with herbs, |
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A gift to the guests of the great-hearted givers. |
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(— Beginning of Fragmented Section —) |
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There warriors washed their war-weary limbs, |
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After the fray, fresh from the fight. |
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Blissful in bathing, bold men laughed, |
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Lords of the land, long since gone. |
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Crafted with cunning, these courts and halls, |
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Risen by hands hewn to skill, |
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Mortared with marvels, matched with gems, |
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Built to endure—but doomed to fade. |
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Wyrd is relentless; ruins bear witness. |
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Stone does not sing, but stands in sorrow. |
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Time conquers towers, tears down thrones, |
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Severs the strong, sunders all bonds. |
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Lo! This learning lies in the dust— |
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Wisdom of ancients, wasted by years. |
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Yet Whispers of wonder, warning the proud. |
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(— End of Reconstruction —) |
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Let him who walks here wonder in thought, |
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Marking these walls, the might that was. |
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Gone is the glory, the gleaming past, |
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Dust upon dust, and dreams turned to past |
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still it speaks to spirit and soul. |
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Latest revision as of 05:17, 23 September 2025
I am creating a wiki to share my common places with students and teachers.