The theology of the balaam oracles: a pagan diviner and the word of god

In stern disdain I turned to

The Muses' service then,

To seek how the unspeakable

Could be fixed by a pen,

Not to flinch though the ink that

I must use, they said,

Was my dearest blood, nearest

My heart, the richest red.

I obeyed them, I made them

Many a costly lay,

Till carelessly, unfairly,

A boy passed that way

Who set ringing with his singing

All the fields and lanes;

They gave him their favour,

Lost, were all my pains.

470

Then I passed to a Master

Trusting to find justice

At the world's root.

With rigid fast and vigil,

Silence, and shirt of hair,

The narrow way to Paradise

I walked with care.

But carelessly, unfairly,

At the eleventh hour there came,

Reckless and feckless,

Without a single claim,

A dare--devil, a ne'er-do-well

Who smelled of shag and gin;

Before me (and far warmer

Was his welcome) he went in.
I stood still in the chill

Of the Great Morning,

Aghast, Then at last

--Oh, I was late learning--

I repented, I entered

Into the excellent joke,'

The absurdity. My burden

Rolled off as I broke I

Into laughter; and soon after

I had found my own level;

With Balaam's Ass daily

Out at grass I revel,

Now playing, now braying

Over the meadows of light,

Our soaring, creaking Gloria,

Our donkey's delight.¹

Brace & World, Inc., 1965), pp. 29-31.

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