Puslapio vaizdai
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CXV

THE RAVEN AND THE OAK.

Underneath an old oak tree

There was of swine a huge company,

That grunted as they crunched the mast;
For that was ripe and fell full fast :

Then they trotted away, for the wind it grew high;
One acorn they left and no more might you spy.
Next came a Raven that liked not such folly:
He belonged, they did say, to the witch Melancholy!
Blacker was he than blackest jet,

Flew low in the rain and his feathers not wet.
He picked up the acorn and buried it straight
By the side of a river both deep and great.
Where then did the Raven go ?

He went high and low,

Over hill, over dale, did the black Raven go.
Many autumns, many springs
Travelled he with wandering wings:
Many summers, many winters—

I can't tell half his adventures.

At length he came back, and with him a she,
And the acorn was grown to a tall oak tree.
They built them a nest on the topmost bough,
And young ones they had and were happy enow.
But soon came a woodman in leathern guise,
His brow, like a penthouse, hung over his eyes.

He'd an axe in his hand, not a word he spoke,
But with many a hem! and sturdy stroke,

At length he brought down the poor Raven's old oak.
His young ones were killed, for they could not depart,
And their mother did die of a broken heart.

The boughs from the trunk the woodman did sever;
And they floated it down on the course of the river.
They sawed it in planks, and its bark they did strip,
And with this tree and others they made a good ship.
The ship it was launched; but in sight of the land
Such a storm did arise as no ship could withstand.
It bulged on a rock, and the waves rushed in fast:
Round and round flew the Raven and cawed to the blast,
He heard the last shriek of the perishing souls -
See! see! o'er the topmast the mad water rolls!
Right glad was the Raven, and off he went fleet,
And Death riding home on a cloud he did meet,
And he thanked him again and again for this treat,
They had taken his all, and revenge it was sweet.

COLERIDGE.

CXVI

CHEVY CHASE.

God prosper long our noble King,

Our lives and safeties all;
A woful hunting once there did
In Chevy Chase befall;

To drive the deer with hound and horn,

Earl Percy took his

way;

The child may rue that is unborn

The hunting of that day.

The stout Earl of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summer days to take;

The chiefest harts in Chevy Chase
To kill and bear away.

This tidings to Earl Douglas came,
In Scotland where he lay;

Who sent Earl Percy present word,
He would prevent his sport.
The English Earl, not fearing that,
Did to the woods resort,

With fifteen hundred bowmen bold;
All chosen men of might,

Who knew full well in time of need
To aim their shafts aright.

The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran,
To chase the fallow-deer:
On Monday they began to hunt,
Ere daylight did appear;

And long before high noon they had
An hundred fat bucks slain;
Then having dined, the drovers went
To rouse the deer again.

The bowmen mustered on the hills,

Well able to endure;

Their backsides all, with special care,
That day were guarded sure.

The hounds run swiftly through the woods,
The nimble deer to take,

That with their cries the hills and dales
An echo shrill did make.

Lord Percy to the quarry went,
To view the slaughtered deer;
Quoth he, "Earl Douglas promised
This day to meet me here;

"But if I thought he would not come,
No longer would I stay;"
With that a brave young gentleman

Thus to the Earl did say:

"Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come, His men in armour bright;

Full twenty hundred Scottish spears

All marching in our sight;

"All men of pleasant Teviotdale,

Fast by the river Tweed;

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"O cease your sport," Earl Percy said, "And take your bows with speed:

"And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance;
For never was there champion yet
In Scotland or in France,

"That ever did on horseback come,
But if my hap it were,

I durst encounter man for man,
With him to break a spear."

Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,
Most like a baron bold,

Rode foremost of his company,

Whose armour shone like gold.

"Show me," saith he, "whose men you be,

That hunt so boldly here,

That, without my consent, do chase
And kill my fallow-deer?"

The man that first did answer make,
Was noble Percy he;

Who said, "We list not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be :

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