BlackShanglan
Silver-Tongued Papist
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2004
- Posts
- 16,888
The Royal Mail had a wonderful little ad campaign on television in which they showed people mailing each other quirky and amusing little pictures or objects that in some way reminded them of that person's distinct personality or nature. It was a great campaign, and its catch phrase ("Saw this, thought of you") still comes to my mind from time to time. It seemed a good thread to have on the AH, so I thought I would inaugurate it.
Ms. Colleen Thomas - saw this, thought of you.
It's a description of the Irish king Conor (or Conchubar), as a young boy, astonishing the court by solving a thorny legal dispute. You've often made me think of it.
Conor, with unalter’d mein,
In a clear sweet voice serene,
Took in hand the tangled skein
And began to make it plain.
As a sheep-dog sorts his cattle,
As a king arrays his battle,
So, the facts on either side
He did marshal and divide.
Every branching side-dispute
Traced he downward to the root
Of the strife’s main stem, and there
Laid the ground of difference bare.
Then to scope of either cause
Set the compass of the laws,
This adopting, that rejecting, -
Reasons to a head collecting, -
As a charging cohort goes
Through and over scatter’d foes,
So, from point to point, he brought
Onward still the weight of thought
Through all error and confusion,
Till he set the clear conclusion
Standing like a king alone,
All thing adverse overthrown,
And gave judgement clear and sound: -
Praises fill’d the hall around;
Yea, the man that lost the cause
Hardly could withhold applause.
(Sir Samuel Ferguson, “The Abdication of Fergus Mac Roy")
Ms. Colleen Thomas - saw this, thought of you.
It's a description of the Irish king Conor (or Conchubar), as a young boy, astonishing the court by solving a thorny legal dispute. You've often made me think of it. Conor, with unalter’d mein,
In a clear sweet voice serene,
Took in hand the tangled skein
And began to make it plain.
As a sheep-dog sorts his cattle,
As a king arrays his battle,
So, the facts on either side
He did marshal and divide.
Every branching side-dispute
Traced he downward to the root
Of the strife’s main stem, and there
Laid the ground of difference bare.
Then to scope of either cause
Set the compass of the laws,
This adopting, that rejecting, -
Reasons to a head collecting, -
As a charging cohort goes
Through and over scatter’d foes,
So, from point to point, he brought
Onward still the weight of thought
Through all error and confusion,
Till he set the clear conclusion
Standing like a king alone,
All thing adverse overthrown,
And gave judgement clear and sound: -
Praises fill’d the hall around;
Yea, the man that lost the cause
Hardly could withhold applause.
(Sir Samuel Ferguson, “The Abdication of Fergus Mac Roy")
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Loved it, Jammies. 
