Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Delphi Poets Series Book 13)

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Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Delphi Poets Series Book 13) Page 54

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


  And the twitter of birds among the trees,

  And felt the breath of the morning breeze 105

  Blowing over the meadows brown.

  And one was safe and asleep in his bed

  Who at the bridge would be first to fall,

  Who that day would be lying dead,

  Pierced by a British musket-ball. 110

  You know the rest. In the books you have read,

  How the British Regulars fired and fled, —

  How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

  From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,

  Chasing the red-coats down the lane, 115

  Then crossing the fields to emerge again

  Under the trees at the turn of the road,

  And only pausing to fire and load.

  So through the night rode Paul Revere;

  And so through the night went his cry of alarm 120

  To every Middlesex village and farm, —

  A cry of defiance and not of fear,

  A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

  And a word that shall echo forevermore!

  For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, 125

  Through all our history, to the last,

  In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

  The people will waken and listen to hear

  The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

  And the midnight message of Paul Revere. 130

  The Landlord’s Tale: Interlude

  THE LANDLORD ended thus his tale,

  Then rising took down from its nail

  The sword that hung there, dim with dust,

  And cleaving to its sheath with rust,

  And said, “This sword was in the fight.” 5

  The Poet seized it, and exclaimed,

  “It is the sword of a good knight,

  Though homespun was his coat-of-mail;

  What matter if it be not named

  Joyeuse, Colada, Durindale, 10

  Excalibar, or Aroundight,

  Or other name the books record?

  Your ancestor, who bore this sword

  As Colonel of the Volunteers,

  Mounted upon his old gray mare, 15

  Seen here and there and everywhere,

  To me a grander shape appears

  Than old Sir William, or what not,

  Clinking about in foreign lands

  With iron gauntlets on his hands, 20

  And on his head an iron pot!”

  All laughed; the Landlord’s face grew red

  As his escutcheon on the wall;

  He could not comprehend at all

  The drift of what the Poet said; 25

  For those who had been longest dead

  Were always greatest in his eyes;

  And he was speechless with surprise

  To see Sir William’s plumèd head

  Brought to a level with the rest, 30

  And made the subject of a jest.

  And this perceiving, to appease

  The Landlord’s wrath, the others’ fears,

  The Student said, with careless ease,

  “The ladies and the cavaliers, 35

  The arms, the loves, the courtesies,

  The deeds of high emprise, I sing!

  Thus Ariosto says, in words

  That have the stately stride and ring

  Of armèd knights and clashing swords. 40

  Now listen to the tale I bring;

  Listen! though not to me belong

  The flowing draperies of his song,

  The words that rouse, the voice that charms.

  The Landlord’s tale was one of arms, 45

  Only a tale of love is mine,

  Blending the human and divine,

  A tale of the Decameron, told

  In Palmieri’s garden old,

  By Fiametta, laurel-crowned, 50

  While her companions lay around,

  And heard the intermingled sound

  Of airs that on their errands sped,

  And wild birds gossiping overhead,

  And lisp of leaves, and fountain’s fall, 55

  And her own voice more sweet than all,

  Telling the tale, which, wanting these,

  Perchance may lose its power to please.”

  The Student’s Tale

  The Falcon of Ser Federigo

  ONE summer morning, when the sun was hot,

  Weary with labor in his garden-plot,

  On a rude bench beneath his cottage eaves,

  Ser Federigo sat among the leaves

  Of a huge vine, that, with its arms outspread, 5

  Hung its delicious clusters overhead.

  Below him, through the lovely valley, flowed

  The river Arno, like a winding road,

  And from its banks were lifted high in air

  The spires and roofs of Florence called the Fair; 10

  To him a marble tomb, that rose above

  His wasted fortunes and his buried love.

  For there, in banquet and in tournament,

  His wealth had lavished been, his substance spent,

  To woo and lose, since ill his wooing sped, 15

  Monna Giovanna, who his rival wed,

  Yet ever in his fancy reigned supreme,

  The ideal woman of a young man’s dream.

  Then he withdrew, in poverty and pain,

  To this small farm, the last of his domain, 20

  His only comfort and his only care

  To prune his vines, and plant the fig and pear;

  His only forester and only guest

  His falcon, faithful to him, when the rest,

  Whose willing hands had found so light of yore 25

  The brazen knocker of his palace door,

  Had now no strength to lift the wooden latch,

  That entrance gave beneath a roof of thatch.

  Companion of his solitary ways,

  Purveyor of his feasts on holidays, 30

  On him this melancholy man bestowed

  The love with which his nature overflowed.

  And so the empty-handed years went round,

  Vacant, though voiceful with prophetic sound,

  And so, that summer morn, he sat and mused 35

  With folded, patient hands, as he was used,

  And dreamily before his half-closed sight

  Floated the vision of his lost delight.

  Beside him, motionless, the drowsy bird

  Dreamed of the chase, and in his slumber heard 40

  The sudden, scythe-like sweep of wings, that dare

  The headlong plunge through eddying gulfs of air,

  Then, starting broad awake upon his perch,

  Tinkled his bells, like mass-bells in a church,

  And looking at his master, seemed to say, 45

  “Ser Federigo, shall we hunt to-day?”

  Ser Federigo thought not of the chase;

  The tender vision of her lovely face,

  I will not say he seems to see, he sees

  In the leaf-shadows of the trellises, 50

  Herself, yet not herself; a lovely child

  With flowing tresses, and eyes wide and wild,

  Coming undaunted up the garden walk,

  And looking not at him, but at the hawk.

  “Beautiful falcon!” said he, “would that I 55

  Might hold thee on my wrist, or see thee fly!”

  The voice was hers, and made strange echoes start

  Through all the haunted chambers of his heart,

  As an æolian harp through gusty doors

  Of some old ruin its wild music pours. 60

  “Who is thy mother, my fair boy?” he said,

  His hand laid softly on that shining head.

  “Monna Giovanna. Will you let me stay

  A little while, and with your falcon play?

  We live there, just beyond your garden wall, 65

  In the great house behind the poplars tall.�
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  So he spake on; and Federigo heard

  As from afar each softly uttered word,

  And drifted onward through the golden gleams

  And shadows of the misty sea of dreams, 70

  As mariners becalmed through vapors drift,

  And feel the sea beneath them sink and lift,

  And hear far off the mournful breakers roar,

  And voices calling faintly from the shore!

  Then waking from his pleasant reveries, 75

  He took the little boy upon his knees,

  And told him stories of his gallant bird,

  Till in their friendship he became a third.

  Monna Giovanna, widowed in her prime,

  Had come with friends to pass the summer time 80

  In her grand villa, half-way up the hill,

  O’erlooking Florence, but retired and still;

  With iron gates, that opened through long lines

  Of sacred ilex and centennial pines,

  And terraced gardens, and broad steps of stone, 85

  And sylvan deities, with moss o’ergrown.

  And fountains palpitating in the heat,

  And all Val d’Arno stretched beneath its feet.

  Here in seclusion, as a widow may,

  The lovely lady whiled the hours away, 90

  Pacing in sable robes the statued hall,

  Herself the stateliest statue among all,

  And seeing more and more, with secret joy,

  Her husband risen and living in her boy,

  Till the lost sense of life returned again, 95

  Not as delight, but as relief from pain.

  Meanwhile the boy, rejoicing in his strength,

  Stormed down the terraces from length to length;

  The screaming peacock chased in hot pursuit,

  And climbed the garden trellises for fruit. 100

  But his chief pastime was to watch the flight,

  Of a gerfalcon, soaring into sight,

  Beyond the trees that fringed the garden wall,

  Then downward stooping at some distant call;

  And as he gazed full often wondered he 105

  Who might the master of the falcon be,

  Until that happy morning, when he found

  Master and falcon in the cottage ground.

  And now a shadow and a terror fell

  On the great house, as if a passing-bell 110

  Tolled from the tower, and filled each spacious room

  With secret awe and preternatural gloom;

  The petted boy grew ill, and day by day

  Pined with mysterious malady away.

  The mother’s heart would not be comforted; 115

  Her darling seemed to her already dead,

  And often, sitting by the sufferer’s side,

  “What can I do to comfort thee?” she cried.

  At first the silent lips made no reply,

  But, moved at length by her importunate cry, 120

  “Give me,” he answered, with imploring tone,

  “Ser Federigo’s falcon for my own!”

  No answer could the astonished mother make;

  How could she ask, e’en for her darling’s sake,

  Such favor at a luckless lover’s hand, 125

  Well knowing that to ask was to command?

  Well knowing, what all falconers confessed,

  In all the land that falcon was the best,

  The master’s pride and passion and delight,

  And the sole pursuivant of this poor knight. 130

  But yet, for her child’s sake, she could no less

  Than give assent, to soothe his restlessness,

  So promised, and then promising to keep

  Her promise sacred, saw him fall asleep.

  The morrow was a bright September morn; 135

  The earth was beautiful as if new-born;

  There was that nameless splendor everywhere,

  That wild exhilaration in the air,

  Which makes the passers in the city street

  Congratulate each other as they meet. 140

  Two lovely ladies, clothed in cloak and hood,

  Passed through the garden gate into the wood,

  Under the lustrous leaves, and through the sheen

  Of dewy sunshine showering down between.

  The one, close-hooded, had the attractive grace 145

  Which sorrow sometimes lends a woman’s face;

  Her dark eyes moistened with the mists that roll

  From the gulf-stream of passion in the soul;

  The other with her hood thrown back, her hair

  Making a golden glory in the air, 150

  Her cheeks suffused with an auroral blush,

  Her young heart singing louder than the thrush,

  So walked, that morn, through mingled light and shade,

  Each by the other’s presence lovelier made,

  Monna Giovanna and her bosom friend, 155

  Intent upon their errand and its end.

  They found Ser Federigo at his toil,

  Like banished Adam, delving in the soil;

  And when he looked and these fair women spied,

  The garden suddenly was glorified; 160

  His long-lost Eden was restored again,

  And the strange river winding through the plain

  No longer was the Arno to his eyes,

  But the Euphrates watering Paradise!

  Monna Giovanna raised her stately head, 165

  And with fair words of salutation said:

  “Ser Federigo, we come here as friends,

  Hoping in this to make some poor amends

  For past unkindness. I who ne’er before

  Would even cross the threshold of your door, 170

  I who in happier days such pride maintained,

  Refused your banquets, and your gifts disdained,

  This morning come, a self-invited guest,

  To put your generous nature to the test,

  And breakfast with you under your own vine.” 175

  To which he answered: “Poor desert of mine,

  Not your unkindness call it, for if aught

  Is good in me of feeling or of thought,

  From you it comes, and this last grace outweighs

  All sorrows, all regrets of other days.” 180

  And after further compliment and talk,

  Among the asters in the garden walk

  He left his guests; and to his cottage turned,

  And as he entered for a moment yearned

  For the lost splendors of the days of old, 185

  The ruby glass, the silver and the gold,

  And felt how piercing is the sting of pride,

  By want embittered and intensified.

  He looked about him for some means or way

  To keep this unexpected holiday; 190

  Searched every cupboard, and then searched again,

  Summoned the maid, who came, but came in vain;

  “The Signor did not hunt to-day,” she said,

  “There’s nothing in the house but wine and bread.”

  Then suddenly the drowsy falcon shook 195

  His little bells, with that sagacious look,

  Which said, as plain as language to the ear,

  “If anything is wanting, I am here!”

  Yes, everything is wanting, gallant bird!

  The master seized thee without further word. 200

  Like thine own lure, he whirled thee round; ah me!

  The pomp and flutter of brave falconry,

  The bells, the jesses, the bright scarlet hood,

  The flight and the pursuit o’er field and wood,

  All these forevermore are ended now; 205

  No longer victor, but the victim thou!

  Then on the board a snow-white cloth he spread,

  Laid on its wooden dish the loaf of bread,

  Brought purple grapes with autumn sunshine hot,

  The fragran
t peach, the juicy bergamot; 210

  Then in the midst a flask of wine he placed

  And with autumnal flowers the banquet graced.

  Ser Federigo, would not these suffice

  Without thy falcon stuffed with cloves and spice?

  When all was ready, and the courtly dame 215

  With her companion to the cottage came,

  Upon Ser Federigo’s brain there fell

  The wild enchantment of a magic spell!

  The room they entered, mean and low and small,

  Was changed into a sumptuous banquet hall, 220

  With fanfares by aerial trumpets blown;

  The rustic chair she sat on was a throne;

  He ate celestial food, and a divine

  Flavor was given to his country wine,

  And the poor falcon, fragrant with his spice, 225

  A peacock was, or bird of paradise!

  When the repast was ended, they arose

  And passed again into the garden-close.

  Then said the lady, “Far too well I know,

  Remembering still the days of long ago, 230

  Though you betray it not, with what surprise

  You see me here in this familiar wise.

  You have no children, and you cannot guess

  What anguish, what unspeakable distress

  A mother feels, whose child is lying ill, 235

  Nor how her heart anticipates his will.

  And yet for this, you see me lay aside

  All womanly reserve and check of pride,

  And ask the thing most precious in your sight,

  Your falcon, your sole comfort and delight, 240

  Which if you find it in your heart to give,

  My poor, unhappy boy perchance may live.”

  Ser Federigo listens, and replies,

  With tears of love and pity in his eyes:

  “Alas, dear lady! there can be no task 245

  So sweet to me, as giving when you ask.

  One little hour ago, if I had known

  This wish of yours, it would have been my own.

  But thinking in what manner I could best

  Do honor to the presence of my guest, 250

  I deemed that nothing worthier could be

  Than what most dear and precious was to me;

  And so my gallant falcon breathed his last

  To furnish forth this morning our repast.”

  In mute contrition, mingled with dismay, 255

  The gentle lady turned her eyes away,

  Grieving that he such sacrifice should make

 

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