Ossian Collection > Lyra celtica

390 PADRAIC H. PEARSE
The Fool.
Since the wise men have not spoken, I speak that am only
a fool ;
A fool that hath loved his folly,
Yea, more than the wise men their books or their counting
houses, or their quiet homes,
Or their fame in men's mouths ;
A fool that in all his days hath done never a prudent thing.
Never hath counted the cost, nor recked if another reaped
The fruit of his mighty sowing, content to scatter the seed ;
A fool that is unrepentant, and that soon at the end of all
Shall laugh in his lonely heart as the ripe ears fall to the
reaping-hooks
And the poor are filled that were empty,
Tho' he go hungry.
I have squandered the splendid years that the Lord God
gave to my youth
In attempting impossible things, deeming them alone
worth the toil.
Was it folly or grace ? Not men shall judge me, but God.
I have squandered the splendid years :
Lord, if I had the years I would squander them over again,
Aye, fling them from me !
For this I have heard in my heart, that a man shall scatter,
not hoard.
Shall do the deed of to-day, nor take thought of to-morrow's
teen,
Shall not bargain or huxter with God ; or was it a jest
of Christ's
And is this my sin before men, to have taken Him at His
word ?
The lawyers have sat in council, the men with the keen,
long faces.