His standing in the five measures
The lowest score the calendar has yet awarded, worn as a badge. He never stops working; his idleness is a dream, a sabbath, and a roadside argument, all three defended like territory.
Scripture, creatively reinterpreted, applied to daughters, horses, and history. His commentary is invented and his conclusions are sound, which is the reverse of most scholarship.
One road, between a village and a town, for a lifetime, and he never wanted another. The bitter coda: history forces wandering on the one man in our calendar who never sought it.
He argues with God and bends to Him, and discovers, at the limit, the one bend he cannot make. A middle score for the most human spine in the calendar.
The highest the Pantheon has yet awarded. The whole village quotes him, and God Himself is held in permanent, affectionate conversation. He is never once alone on that road.