I had the great pleasure and honour to read my Epithalamion written for my youngest sister, Leonora, at her wedding reception on Friday 17 October last. It proved a difficult task to write and I only finished it an hour before the ceremony. I am publishing it here at the request of several of the guests at the wedding. Some of the lines are quite long and wrap, so I have indicated such line endings with a closing ].

E P I T H A L A M I O N

(In celebration of the happy occasion of the union in matrimony of Toirdealbhach Ó Lionáird and Leonora Stack in Fossa, Killarney on 17 October 2008)

Where gushing glaisí spash the rocks with glee
Thorn bushes shower cream-blossomed filigree
On sun-dappled, hedged, ridged, rain-sprinkled green
Beneath midge-speckled starling-scattering skies
Hilly, rilled, daled, ditched potato drills
Stalk corpse-fertilized fenced defenceless fields
Dotted with buttercup, orchid, and the bearded rush, bounded by trees]
Whose silver tracked trunks in the song thronged early light]
Will ever scribe in sluggish Ogham fast fading memories of night]
And spin their ancient yarns in sacred sigils of delight
The warp and weft of life from Créide’s fertile loom
Her shawl in woad and nightshade juices dipped now sparkles bright]
At break of day when Gráinne’s golden tendrils all afire
Creep round the world’s edge and put to flight
The barnacle goose, the dew drunk hare, the moon
And bathe in burnished bronze the verdant fronds, the honeyed broom]
And blazing furze, the place Fionn stood at Samhain in deepest gloom]
To bed, if not to wed, Her younger self twixt Anu’s mountain breasts]
And gain full seven nights of pleasure and immortal name, if no other boon.]
We bid welcome to Great Anu on this glorious noon
That She may grant a long and fruitful life to the bride and groom]
May stout-hearted Toirdealbhach and sweet Leonora bloom]
In ever-deepening love: this is the fervent wish of these your assembled guests.]

Friday 17 October 2008

Epithalamion by Patrick Stack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.