Lord of the Plains of Trembling, Master of Bonds-men— Thor, 
Where are you sleeping, son of Earth, while the men go down to the war? 
Are the Giants slain and the Giants' Bane laid by, with its battles o'er? 

Do you sit by Sif and listen, O Thor the Thunderer, 
While she tunes her harp to a drowsy rhyme of woes and wars that were? 
Are the swords and slings forgotten things for love of the songs of her? 

Yet she is a God's own daughter, and the wild blood's in her, too — 
She has watched the young lives spilling, and trodden them down like dew: 
Does she not long for the seagull's song, and the ships in the midsea blue? 

Awake, O Sif, arise, O Sif, and bid thy lord up-stand, 
Draw close the belt about him, set Miolnir in his hand — 
Bid him rise and smite for Odin's right and the sake of Odin's land. 

For over the sleep of Bragi the fearless wild bees hum, 
And Frigga listens at her loom for steps that never come: 
And an ended story is Odin's glory, and the mouth of Mimir's dumb. 

Up, Thor, for Odin's honour: up, Sif, for the Thunderer's! 
Tho' Sigurd sleep at Brynhild's side, let sleep be his and hers! 
Open tho' late is Valhall gate, and the sleeping fire it stirs. 

Sing, Sif, till the heroes hear thee — and rise, and northward go 
Till the Warder wakes on Bifrost bridge and Balder wakes below; 
Till the Warder wakes and the sunrise breaks the frozen heart of the snow. 

Sing, Sif, till the ears of Odin hear thee, until Hel's door 
Be opened wide for Balder, and Frigga's watch be o'er — 
Sing, Gold-Hair, sing until Glasir ring with the steps of Tyr and Thor. 

To follow the fox at the hounds’ tails
And at their baying move a tailor’s inch
To follow, wild as the chicken stealer,
Scent through the clutches of the heather,
Leads to fool’s paradise where the redcoated killer
Deserves no brush, but a fool’s ambush.
Following the nose down dell, up rise
Into the map-backed hills where paths
Cross all directions, bracken points to the skies,
Leads, too, to a lead pit, whinny and fall,
No fox, no good, fool’s, not a fox’s, hole,
And that is the reward of labour
Through heath and heather at the mind’s will.
To follow the nose if the nose goes
Wisely at the dogs’ tails, leads
Through easier heather to the foul lair
Over a road thick with the bones of words.
If hunting means anything more than the chase
On a mare’s back of a mare’s nest or a goose,
Then only over corpses shall the feet tread,
Crunching the already broken,
And this way leads to good and bad,
Where more than snails are friends.