[{"node":{"title":"GreacenStanford287","Collections":"Letters to Stanford","Contributor":"Greacen Estate","Coverage":"1977 Jul 22nd","Creator":"LHL","Date":"Wednesday, March 16, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"GreacenStanford287","Item Description":"Letter","Keywords":"Brother Stephen","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/greacenstanford287","Publisher":"LHL","Relation":"LHL","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/GreacenStanford287.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeffI, Brother Stephen\n\nI Brother Stephen, sit in the Scriptorium\nCopying,copying with diligence and x delight\nIn elegant, decorative lettering\nPsalter and gospels,praise be to Him!\nAnd praise also to our holy Abbot\nMild dove of Christ, sainted Columba\nOf Ulster,Scotland and Northumbria\nWith whom I sailed out from Lough Foyle,\nAway from Derry's grove of oaks\nWhen he was known as Columbcille.\nLong years ago we sailed,563 A.D. or so,\nLandfall unknown,the green wavexxx pounding\nAnd the storm butting our craft on to Iona.\nDeathly sick and scared everyone was,\nAll except our gently strong Columba\ntho calmed us with his burning faith.\n\"They that seek the Lord\", he said,\n\"shall want no manner of thing that is good.\"\nPraise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!\n\nstudy, prayer, fasting, gardening, fishing,\nThe bothers knew little comfort of the flesh\nxxx foreven our robes are course and scratchy\nYet none would have it otherwise. Praise Him!\nPraise Him for thistle as for rose,\nPraise Him for bogland as for meadow.\nMy hands are calloused from oar and spade\nSo that I drive the quill right clumsily\nAcross the parchment acreage.\nPraise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!\n\nTime was, when stripling green, I danced\nIn peacock robes of proudest hue,\nDicing and drinking in my father's house\nOf princely pomp and devil's luxury,\nWhoring fraa starry hour till rosy light.\n\nOne night when crazed with mead and lust\nI ploughed in ecstasy my brother's field,\nEmptied into his wife my bag of seed,\nHe roused us from our lecherous embrace,\nKilled her,the faithless one,at a swift stroke.\nBrother fought brother until I left him dead\nBeside the marriage bed I had defiled.\n\nI fled in panic,sought Columba's narrow cell,\nConfessed to him the anguish in my heart.\n\nHe sheltered,fed me,wrapped me in God's peace.\nPraise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!\n\nover\n","Type":"Text"}}]