Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Yet not a heart to save my pain? Oh, Venus, take thy gifts again! Make not so fair to cause our moan, Or make a heart that's like our own.

JOHN HARRINGTON.

'TIS THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER.

IS the last rose of summer,

'TIS

Left blooming alone;

All her lovely companions

Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud, is nigh,

To reflect back her blushes
Or give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem :
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them.

Thus kindly I scatter

Thy leaves o'er the bed Where thy mates of the garden.

Lie scentless and dead.

[blocks in formation]

The camp was all in tumult,

And there was such a thunder

Of cymbals and of drums.

As if the earth would cleave in sunder.

There you might see the Moors
Arming themselves in haste,
And the two main battles

How they were forming fast,
Horsemen and footmen mixt,
A countless troop and vast.
The Moors are moving forward,
The battle soon must join.
"My men, stand here in order,

Ranged upon a line;

Let not a man move from his rank
Before I give the sign."

Pero Bermuez heard the word,

But he could not refrain:
He held the banner in his hand,
He gave his horse the rein:
"You see yon foremost squadron there,
The thickest of the foes?
Noble Cid, God be your aid,

For there your banner goes!
Let him that serves and honors it
Show the duty that he owes."
Earnestly the Cid called out,
"For Heaven's sake be still!"
Bermuez cried, "I cannot hold,"

So eager was his will.

He spurred his horse, and drove him on Amid the Moorish rout;

They strove to win the banner,

And compassed him about.
Had not his armor been so true,

He had lost either life or limb;
The Cid called out again,
"For Heaven's sake succor him !"
Their shields before their breasts,

Forth at once they gc,

Their lances in the rest

Levelled fair and low,
Their banners and their crests
Waving in a row,

Their heads all stooping down

Toward the saddle-bow. The Cid was in the midst,

His shout was heard afar:

"I am Rui Diaz,

The champion of Bivar-
Strike amongst them, gentlemen,
For sweet mercies' sake!"
There where Bermuez fought

Amidst the foe they brake;
Three hundred bannered knights,
It was a gallant show;
Three hundred Moors they killed,
A man at every blow.
When they wheeled and turned,
As many more lay slain :

You might see them raise their lances,
And level them again.

[blocks in formation]

BE

[blocks in formation]

EFORE his lord he came and mercy God grant that to punish my falsehood and sought,

But to his fellows mercy would not show:
Although his debts were freely all forgiven,
From others he exacted his full dues
Unto the uttermost.

pride

Your ghost at the marriage may sit by my

side,

May tax me with perjury, claim me as bride, And bear me away to the grave!"

His presence all bosoms appeared to dismay; The guests sat in silence and fear;

To Palestine hastened the hero so bold;
His love she lamented him sore,
But scarce had a twelvemonth elapsed, when, At length spake the bride, while she trem-

behold!

A baron all covered with jewels and gold Arrived at Fair Imogine's door.

His treasures, his presents, his spacious domain,

Soon made her untrue to her vows;

bled: "I pray,

Sir knight, that your helmet aside you would lay

And deign to partake of our cheer."

The lady is silent; the stranger complies: His vizor he slowly unclosed;

He dazzled her eyes, he bewildered her O God! what a sight met Fair Imogine's

eyes!

brain, He caught her affections, so light and so What words can express her dismay and

vain,

[blocks in formation]

surprise

When a skeleton's head was exposed?

And now had the marriage been blest by the All present then uttered a terrified shout,

priest,

The revelry now was begun;

The tables they groaned with the weight of

the feast,

Nor yet had the laughter and merriment ceased

When the bell at the castle tolled one.

Then first with amazement Fair Imogine found

A stranger was placed by her side; His air was terrific, he uttered no sound; He spake not, he moved not, he looked not around,

But earnestly gazed on the bride.

His vizor was closed and gigantic his height, His armor was sable to view;

All turned with disgust from the scene: The worms they crept in, and the worms they crept out,

And sported his eyes and his temples about, While the spectre addressed Imogine.

"Behold me, thou false one, behold me !" he cried;

"Remember Alonzo the Brave! God grants that to punish thy falsehood and pride

My ghost at thy marriage should sit by thy

side

Should tax thee with perjury, claim thee as bride,

And bear thee away to the grave."

Thus saying, his arms round the lady he wound,

All pleasure and laughter were hushed at his While loudly she shrieked in dismay,

sight;

The dogs, as they eyed him, drew back in

affright;

The lights in the chamber burned blue.

Then sunk with his prey through the wideyawning ground;

Nor ever again was Fair Imogine found,

Or the spectre that bore her away.

Not long lived the baron, and none, since

that time,

To inhabit the castle presume; For chronicles tell that by order sublime There Imogine suffers the pain of her crime And mourns her deplorable doom.

"And is mine one?" said Abou.-" Nay, not so,"

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, But cheerly still, and said, "I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."

At midnight four times in each year does The angel wrote, and vanished. The next

her sprite,

[blocks in formation]

night

[blocks in formation]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »