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- IN TARA'S HALLS
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- A MAN I praise that once in Tara's Hals
- Said to the woman on his knees, "Lie still.
- My hundredth year is at an end. I think
- That something is about to happen, I think
- That the adventure of old age begins.
- To many women I have said, ""Lie still,''
- And given everything a woman needs,
- A roof, good clothes, passion, love perhaps,
- But never asked for love; should I ask that,
- I shall be old indeed.'
- Thereon the man
- Went to the Sacred House and stood between
- The golden plough and harrow and spoke aloud
- That all attendants and the casual crowd might hear.
- "God I have loved, but should I ask return
- Of God or woman, the time were come to die.'
- He bade, his hundred and first year at end,
- Diggers and carpenters make grave and coffin;
- Saw that the grave was deep, the coffin sound,
- Summoned the generations of his house,
- Lay in the coffin, stopped his breath and died.
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