It seems to me this present life, oh king,
compared to all the time we cannot see
is like a sparrow’s swift flight through a hall
where you are seated, feasting with your men
around a fire of a winter’s night:
the wind roars, snow and rain come down outside.
Flying in one door then out another
the sparrow will be safe from the foul weather
for the brief interval it is inside
but in an instant it is gone from sight
into the snow and darkness once again.
The longest human life is brief withal.
As to what comes before or after, we
cannot, with certitude, know anything.
Taken from “Exercises,” a poem by Bill Coyle
The reference is to a speech made by a missionary to the heathen Anglo-Saxons reported (if I remember correctly) by the Venerable Bede. The image of the swallow (flying in and out, not by the doors, but by the smoke-holes in the gables) was a familiar one to those who lived in the old feasting halls.
Your memory is quite right, Lars. Chesterton references it in a line from The Ballad of the White Horse.
Yes, its in Bede. The conversion of Northumbria under King Edwin.
This seems to contain most of the text – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coifi
(That was google. I did remember it was King Edwin and Northumbria tho 🙂