Is it aught ev'n to her we mourn? Doth she look on the tears by her kindred shed? Doth she rest with the flowers o'er her gentle head, Or float on the light wind borne? We know not-but she is gone! Her step from the dance, her voice from the song, And the smile of her eye from the festal throng;-She hath left her dwelling lone! When the waves at sunset shine, We may hear thy voice, amidst thousands more, But we shall not know 'tis thine! Ev'n so with the lov'd one flown! Her smile in the starlight may wander by, Go forth, we have loos'd thy chain ! We may deck thy cage with the richest flowers, Which the bright day rears in our eastern bowers, But thou wilt not be lur'd again. Ev'n thus may the summer pour All fragrant things on the land's green breast, And the glorious earth like a bride be dress'd, But it wins her back no more ! THE SWORD OF THE TOMB. A NORTHERN LEGEND.. The idea of this ballad is taken from a scene in " Starkother," a tragedy by the Danish poet Ochlenschlager. The sepulchral fire here alluded to, and supposed to guard the ashes of deceased heroes, is frequently mentioned in the Northern Sagas. Severe sufferings to the departed spirit were supposed by the Scandinavian mythologists to be the consequence of any profanation of the sepulchre. See Ochlenschlager's Plays. "VOICE of the gifted elder time! Voice of the charm and the Runic rhyme! How Sigurd may vanquish his mortal foes; Voice of the buried past! "Voice of the grave! 'tis the mighty hour, And the spell I have sung hath laid repose Then the torrents of the North, "There shines no sun 'midst the hidden dead, tread; But where the day looks not the brave may "There is laid a sword in thy father's tomb, Then died the solemn lay, As a trumpet's music dies, By the night-wind borne away Through the wild and stormy skies. The fir-trees rock'd to the wailing blast, The fir-trees rock'd, and the frozen ground And it seem'd that the depths of those awful shades, Gave warning, with voice and sign. But the wind strange magic knows To call wild shape and tone From the grey wood's tossing boughs The pines clos'd o'er him with deeper gloom, But his road through dimness lay! 1 |