Romantic Ballads | Page 5

needy bird came fluttering,
Came muttering,
And sadly sang,

'Look here, look here, thou wealthy bird,
How loose my feathers
hang.'
"Remember, Queen, the stormy day,
When cast away
Thou wast so
nigh:-
Thou wast the needy bird that day,
And unto me didst cry.

"Death-raven now comes towering,
Comes scowering,
O'er hill and
stream;
But when wilt thou, Dame Sigrid fair,
Thy plighted word
redeem."
A hollow moan from Sigrid's bosom came,
While he survey'd her
with his eye of flame:
"Fly," said she; "demon monster, get thee
hence!
My humble pray'r shall be my son's defence."
She cross'd
herself, and then the fiend flew out;
But first, contemptuously he
danc'd about,
And sang, "No pray'r shall save him from my rage;
In
Christian blood my thirst I will assuage."
Young Harrald seiz'd his scarlet cap, and cried,
"I'll probe the grief
my mother fain would hide;"
Then, rushing into her apartment fair,

"O mother," said he, "wherefore sitt'st thou there,
Far from thy family
at dead of night,
With lips so mute, and cheeks so ghastly white?

Tell me what lies so heavy at thy heart;
Grief, when confided, loses
half its smart."
"O Harrald," sigh'd she, yielding to his pray'r,
"Creatures are
swarming in the earth and air,
Who, wild with wickedness, and hot
with wrath,
Wage war on those who follow virtue's path.
One of
those fiends is on the watch for thee,
Arm'd with a promise wrung by
him from me:
His blood-shot eyes in narrow sockets roll,
And
every night he leaves his mirksome hole.
"He was a kind of God, in former days;
Kings worshipp'd him, and
minstrels sang his praise;
But when Christ's doctrine through the dark
North flam'd,
His, and all evil spirits' might was tam'd.
He now is
but a raven; yet is still
Full strong enough to work on thee his will:

Lost is the wretch who in his power falls -
Vainly he shrieks, in vain
for mercy calls."
She whisper'd to him then, with bloodless lip,
What had befallen her
on board the ship;
But youthful Harrald listen'd undismay'd,
And

merely gripp'd the handle of his blade.
"My son," she murmur'd,
when her tale was told,
"Fear withers me, but thou look'st blythe and
bold."
The youth uplifted then his sparkling eye,
And said, whilst
gazing on the moon-lit sky,
"Once, my dear mother, at the close of day,
Among tall flowers in the
grove I lay,
Soft sang the linnets from a thousand trees,
And,
sweetly lull'd, I slumber'd by degrees.
Then, heaven's curtain was,
methought, undrawn,
And, clad in hues that deck the brow of morn,

An angel slowly sank towards the earth,
Which seem'd to hail him
with a smile of mirth.
"He rais'd his hand, and bade me fix my eye
Upon a chain which,
hanging from the sky,
Embrac'd the world; and, stretching high and
low,
Clink'd, as it mov'd, the notes of joy and wo:
The links that
came in sight were purpled o'er
Full frequently with what seem'd
human gore;
Of various metals made, it clasp'd the mould, -
Steel
clung to silver, iron clung to gold.
"Then said the angel, with majestic air, -
'The chain of destiny thou
seest there.
Accept whate'er it gives, and murmur not;
For hard
necessity has cast each lot.'
He vanish'd--I awoke with sudden start,

But that strange dream was graven on my heart.
I go wherever fate
shall please to call, -
Without God's leave, no fly to earth can fall."
It thunders--and from midnight's mirky cloud,
Comes peal on peal
reverberating loud:
The froth-clad breakers cast, with sullen roar,
A
Scottish bark upon the whiten'd shore.
Straight to the royal palace
hasten then
A lovely maid and thirty sea-worn men.
Minona,
Scotland's princess, Scotland's boast,
The storm has driven to the
Danish coast.
Oft, while the train hew timber in the groves,
Minona, arm in arm,
with Harrald roves.
Warm from his lip the words of passion flow;


Pure in her eyes the flames of passion glow.
One summer eve, upon a
mossy bank,
Mouth join'd to mouth, and breast to breast, they sank:

The moon arose in haste to see their love,
And wild birds carroll'd
from the boughs above.
But now the ship, which seem'd of late a wreck,
Floats with a mast
set proudly on her deck.
Minona kisses Harrald's blooming face,

Whilst he attends her to the parting place.
His bold young heart beats
high against his side -
She sail'd away--and, like one petrified,
Full
long he stood upon the shore, to view
The smooth keel slipping
through the waters blue.
Months pass, and Sigrid's sorrow disappears;
The wild death-raven's
might no more she fears;
A gentle red bedecks her cheek again,

And briny drops her eye no longer stain.
"My Harrald stalks in manly
size and strength;
Swart bird of darkness, I rejoice at length;
If thy
curst claw could hurt my gallant son,
Long, long, ere this, the deed
would have been done."
But Harrald look'd so moody and forlorn,
And thus his mother he
address'd one morn:
"Minona's face is equall'd by her mind;

Methinks she calls me from her hills of wind?
Give me a ship with
men and gold at need,
And let me to her father's kingdom speed;
I'll
soon return, and back across the tide
Bring thee a daughter, and
myself a bride."
Dame