Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GUITAR SONG, by VICTOR MARIE HUGO


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GUITAR SONG, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Gastibelza, gun on shoulder
Last Line: That hath maddened me!
Subject(s): Beauty; Singing & Singers; Songs


GASTIBELZA, gun on shoulder,
Started this strange song:—
None of you knew Donna Sabine,
None among the throng?
Sing and dance, good village people
For the sun falls steadily ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

None of you knew Donna Sabine
My own lady fair,
Mothered by the old Maugrabine
Out of Antequer?
She who like an owl at nightfall
From her tower cried mournfully ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

Dance and sing. Make hay, good people,
While the sun doth shine.
She was young, her joyous glances
Made the heart to pine.
Spare this old man with the urchin
Just a mite for charity ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

Truly but the Queen beside her
Had seemed poorly graced
When she crossed Toledo's river
In her bodice laced.
Round her neck a linkéd chaplet
Old beyond all memory ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

Said the King himself beholding
How my love was fair,
"For her kiss, or smile, or only
One strand of her hair,
Royal nephew, I would barter
Spain and all I hold in fee ..."
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

Did I truly love this lady?
This I know alone:
Had she but looked kindly on me
I, poor dog, had gone
Happily ten years to prison
Captive under lock and key ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

On a summer day all sunny
Life and honey'd air,
She went streamward with her sister
Both to wanton there.
And I saw her slender playmate's
Foot agleam, and her bare knee ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

When I saw this child, I, shepherd
Watching o'er my fold
Thought it was Queen Cleopatra
Whom I did behold;
She who led the world's Lord, Cæsar,
Tethered, so says History ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

Dance and sing, good village people,
Ere the night be old.
Sabine all her love and beauty
To Count Sarden sold;
All for a gold ring she bartered,
All for pride and jewelry ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain.
That will madden me.

I am weary; on this bench here
Suffer me to stay.
Now hath Sabine with her Master
Gone the truant way!
On the road that leads to Sarden,
If, indeed, that road it be ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That will madden me.

Past my hut I saw her hasting
Swiftly; that was all.
Now, from hour to hour I sicken,
Full of tears and gall.
Idler, gird thy belt with daggers,
To the barren wild win free ...
There's a wind blows o'er the mountain
That hath maddened me!





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