DLTK's Poems
The Skeleton in Armor
"Speak! speak I thou fearful guest
Who, with thy
hollow breast
Still in rude armor drest,
Comest to
daunt me!
Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
Bat with thy fleshless palms
Stretched, as if asking alms,
Why dost thou haunt me?"
Then, from those cavernous eyes
Pale flashes seemed to rise,
As
when the Northern skies
Gleam in December;
And, like
the water's flow
Under December's snow,
Came a dull voice of woe
From
the heart's chamber.
"I was a Viking old!
My deeds, though
manifold,
No Skald in song has told,
No Saga taught
thee!
Take heed, that in thy verse
Thou dost the tale rehearse,
Else dread a dead man's curse;
For this I sought thee.
"Far in the Northern Land,
By the wild Baltic's strand,
I, with my childish hand,
Tamed the gerfalcon;
And, with my skates fast-bound,
Skimmed the
half-frozen Sound,
That the poor whimpering hound
Trembled to walk on.
"Oft to his frozen lair
Tracked I the grisly bear,
While from my
path the hare
Fled like a shadow;
Oft through the
forest dark
Followed the were-wolf's bark,
Until the soaring lark
Sang from the meadow.
"But when I older grew,
Joining a
corsair's crew,
O'er the dark sea I flew
With the marauders.
Wild was
the life we led;
Many the souls that sped,
Many the hearts that
bled,
By our stern orders.
"Many a wassail-bout
Wore the long Winter out;
Often our midnight shout
Set the cocks crowing,
As we the Berserk's tale
Measured in cups
of ale,
Draining the oaken pail,
Filled to o'erflowing.
"Once as I told in glee
Tales of the stormy sea,
Soft eyes did gaze on me,
Burning yet tender;
And as the white stars shine
On the dark
Norway pine,
On that dark heart of mine
Fell their
soft splendor.
"I wooed the blue-eyed maid,
Yielding, yet half
afraid,
And in the forest's shade
Our vows were
plighted.
Under its loosened vest
Fluttered her little breast
Like birds within their nest
By the hawk frighted.
"Bright in her father's hall
Shields gleamed upon the wall,
Loud
sang the minstrels all,
Chanting his glory;
When of
old Hildebrand
I asked his daughter's hand,
Mute did the minstrels stand
To hear my story.
"While the brown ale he quaffed,
Loud then
the champion laughed,
And as the wind-gusts waft
The
sea-foam brightly,
So the loud laugh of scorn,
Out of those lips
unshorn,
From the deep drinking-horn
Blew the foam lightly.
"She was a Prince's child,
I but a Viking wild,
And though she
blushed and smiled,
I was discarded!
Should not the
dove so white
Follow the sea-mew's flight,
Why did they leave that
night
Her nest unguarded?
"Scarce had I put to
sea,
Bearing the maid with me,
Fairest of all was she
Among the Norsemen!
When on
the white sea-strand,
Waving his armed hand,
Saw we old
Hildebrand,
With twenty horsemen.
"Then launched
they to the blast,
Bent like a reed each mast,
Yet we were gaining
fast,
When the wind failed us;
And with a sudden flaw
Came round the gusty Skaw,
So that our foe
we saw
Laugh as he hailed us.
"And as to catch
the gale
Round veered the flapping sail,
Death I was the helmsman's hail,
Death without quarter!
Mid-ships with iron keel
Struck we her ribs of steel
Down her black hulk did reel
Through the black water!
"As with his wings aslant,
Sails the fierce cormorant,
Seeking
some rocky haunt
With his prey laden,
So toward the
open main,
Beating to sea again,
Through the wild hurricane,
Bore I the maiden.
"Three weeks we westward bore,
And when the
storm was o'er,
Cloud-like we saw the shore
Stretching to leeward;
There for my lady's bower
Built I the lofty
tower,
Which, to this very hour,
Stands looking
seaward.
"There lived we many years;
Time dried the maiden's tears
She had forgot her fears,
She was a mother.
Death closed her mild blue eyes,
Under that
tower she lies;
Ne'er shall the sun arise
On such
another!
"Still grew my bosom then.
Still as a stagnant fen!
Hateful to me were men,
The sunlight hateful!
In the
vast forest here,
Clad in my warlike gear,
Fell I upon my spear,
O, death was grateful!
"Thus, seamed with many scars,
Bursting these prison bars,
Up to
its native stars
My soul ascended!
There from the
flowing bowl
Deep drinks the warrior's soul,
Skoal! to the Northland! skoal!"
Thus the tale ended.
