The Old Gods (By: John Burnside)

Now they are condemned
to live in cracks
in bubbles of plaster and rust
and spiders' webs
behind the furniture:

speaking a derelict language
to empty space,
sealed with the vapour
in bottles, closed in the blown
robins' eggs
in some abandoned loft.

Each has its given power.
Each has its heart, its secret,
its local name,
and each has its way of learning
the skill of return,
the science of bleeding through, when anger or fear
is fuzzing the surface,
making us dizzy and whole.

By: John Burnside


Comment

The first purpose of a poem is to give an emotion to the reader, or lead to a reasoning, this happen from the title of this poem, why there are old Gods? why there aren't contemporary Gods?

An answer can be find on the first stanza where these old Gods are marginalised, probably by the humans, that don't need the presence of Gods to their life.

The separation between humans and gods is due to a possible mistake, made by the clergy, unable to speak to the people, being prisoners of their dogmas. The people aren't immune to mistakes, they are too selfish to think about God, they should do to learn 'the skill of return.' in another form of life, to win the superficiality of our contemporary life.