Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 3. Interlude I.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
'O Edrehi, forbear to-night
Your ghostly legends of affright,
And let the Talmud rest in peace;
Spare us your dismal tales of death
That almost take away one's breath;
So doing, may your tribe increase.'
Thus the Sicilian said; then went
And on the spinet's rattling keys
Played Marianina, like a breeze
From Naples and the Southern seas,
That brings us the delicious scent
Of citron and of orange trees,
And memories of soft days of ease
At Capri and Amalfi spent.
'Not so,' the eager Poet said;
'At least, not so before I tell
The story of my Azrael,
An angel mortal as ourselves,
Which in an ancient tome I found
Upon a convent's dusty shelves,
Chained with an iron chain, and bound
In parchment, and with clasps of brass,
Lest from its prison, some dark day,
It might be stolen or steal away,
While the good friars were singing mass.
'It is a tale of Charlemagne,
When like a thunder-cloud, that lowers
And sweeps from mountain-crest to coast,
With lightning flaming through its showers,
He swept across the Lombard plain,
Beleaguering with his warlike train
Pavia, the country's pride and boast,
The City of the Hundred Towers.'
Thus heralded the tale began,
And thus in sober measure ran.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 154 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABCCB DEEEDEED XFFGHGHIJJI KLMLKKML NN |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,168 |
Words | 215 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 8, 11, 8, 2 |
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"Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 3. Interlude I." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/18792/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-:-part-3.-interlude-i.>.
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