He and His
Old English is so foreign to us now
That most of us are lost if we attempt
To read it. Modern words do not allow
The old ones to come through. New words pre-empt
The alphabet and sense of older terms.
Some letters are too strange. Those yoks and thorns
Are more like quill mistakes or little squirms
Than signs of sounds, or more like Viking horns.
As usual in most societies,
Though, privileged positions are not tamed,
Not even by long years. Proprieties
Belonging to the privileged are not shamed
Away. The pronouns HE and HIS remain
Unchanged. The male holds on to HIS domain.