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The Metal Glen

My mother told me once of when
A young hare ventured from her den
And as she danced in field and glen
The world sang joy about her.
But wicked hateful things abound
And that young hare these evils found
Then whisked her up from off the ground
And glen was left without her.

The wicked power tore asunder
And with this cruel and fateful blunder
Cast her to a world of wonder
Would she e'er see home again?
And so hare flew that mournful day
Over the sky and far away
And down and down, beneath the sea
To a place unlike the glen.

A world of men and man's design
A place where God's light would not shine
A Hell of steel beneath the brine
Where misery's echoes boomed.
And all around her there were others
Beasts like her, all sisters, brothers,
Locked up, all, with one another,
In deep sea-dark, entombed.

And in this crypt far from the shore
The hare lay down upon the floor
Imprisoned there forever more
And left to all her sorrow.
Her tender world was lost and gone
So joy and happiness foregone
She slept and cried and prayed for dawn
To wait the coming morrow.

The hound was still, the birds said naught,
The fox denied he had been caught,
The bear cried "This is just our lot",
And surrendered to his pain.
But the cat stood up and shook his head
And rising from his metal bed
He said "For now, I am not dead,
And I will not die in vain!"

He cried aloud with much disdain
And tore about his stark domain
And said "These walls cannot contain
A force as strong as I!"
And the fox just laughed, and the birds all cried
And the bear knotted up himself and died
But the hare looked on as the poor cat tried
To break him free and fly.

He shook his chain with all his rage
And flew in anger 'round his cage
Decrying this dark mournful stage
And the hare stood up as well.
With passion did she then respond,
She chewed her ropes and broke her bonds,
And freed the cat, they ran beyond,
They ran to flee that hell.

And what became of cat and hare?
Did they break free to purer air?
To guess their fate we shouldn't dare
Perhaps their tale closed well.
But for all the beasts trapped in the Nether
All life from out the loch and heather
The flock that could not work together
Are sure still trapped in Hell.

--William Murdoch