A second time the dove is sent forth, and this is how the poet tells of it:—­

            “Far and wide she flew
    Glad in flying free, till she found a place
    On a gentle tree.  Gay of mood she was and glad
    Since she sorely tired, now could settle down,
    On the branches of the tree, on its beamy mast. 
    Then she fluttered feathers, went a flying off again,
    With her booty flew, brought it to the sailor,
    From an olive tree a twig, right into his hands
    Brought the blade of green.

“Then the chief of seamen knew that gladness was at hand, and he sent forth after three weeks the wild dove who came not back again; for she saw the land of the greening trees.  The happy creature, all rejoicing, would no longer of the ark, for she needed it no more."*

Stopford Brooke

Besides Genesis many other poems were thought at one time to have been made by Caedmon.  The chief of these are Exodus and Daniel.  They are all in an old book, called the Junian Ms., from the name of the man, Francis Dujon, who first published them.  The Ms. was found among some other old books in Trinity College, Dublin, and given to Francis Dujon.  He published the poems in 1655, and it is from that time that we date our knowledge of Caedmon.

Wise men tell us that Caedmon could not have made any of these poems, not even the Genesis of which you have been reading.  But if Caedmon did not make these very poems, he made others like them which have been lost.  It was he who first showed the way, and other poets followed.

We need not wonder, perhaps, that our poetry is a splendor of the world when we remember that it is rooted in these grand old tales, and that it awoke to life through the singing of a strong son of the soil, a herdsman and a poet.  We know very little of this first of English poets, but what we do know makes us love him.  He must have been a gentle, humble, kindly man, tender of heart and pure of mind.  Of his birth we know nothing; of his life little except the story which has been told.  And when death came to him, he met it cheerfully as he had lived.

For some days he had been ill, but able still to walk and talk.  But one night, feeling that the end of life for him was near, he asked the brothers to give to him for the last time the Eucharist, or sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

“They answered, ’What need of the Eucharist? for you are not likely to die, since you talk so merrily with us, as if you were in perfect health.’

“‘However,’ said he, ‘bring me the Eucharist.’

“Having received the same into his hand, he asked whether they were all in charity with him, and without any enmity or rancour.

“They answered that they were all in perfect charity and free from anger; and in their turn asked him whether he was in the same mind towards them.

“He answered, ’I am in charity, my children, with all the servants of God.’