THE SKELETON IN ARMOR. "SPEAK! speak! thou fearful guest! Who, with thy hollow breast Still in rude armor drest, Comest to daunt me! Wrapt not in Eastern balms, But with thy fleshless palms Stretched, as if asking alms, Why dost thou haunt me?" Then, from those cavernous eyes As when the Northern skies Came a dull voice of woe "I was a Viking old! My deeds, though manifold, No Saga taught thee! Take heed, that in thy verse 124 "Far in the Northern land, By the wild Baltic's strand, I, with my childish hand, And, with my skates fast-bound, "Oft to his frozen lair While from my path the hare Sang from the meadow. "But when I older grew, "Many a wassail-bout "Once as I told in glee Tales of the stormy sea, Soft eyes did gaze on me, And as the white stars shine. On that dark heart of mine "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 When of old Hildebrand I asked his daughter's hand, "While the brown ale he quaffed, "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 Why did they leave that night Her nest unguarded? |