Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HIALMAR'S HEART, by CHARLES MARIE RENE LECONTE DE LISLE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HIALMAR'S HEART, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: A clear night, icy wind, and blood-streams staining
Last Line: "my seat where the high gods are in the sun."
Subject(s): Death; Love - Loss Of; Ravens; War; Dead, The


A CLEAR night, icy wind, and blood-streams staining
The snow where tombless lie a thousand dead,
With sword still gript and eyes aghast. Complaining
The ravens wheel above them still unfed.

The light pours wanly from the moon's chill'd embers.
Forth from the bloody heap Hialmar lifts
On his snapt sword himself whose corse dismembers,
The blood of battle raining from its rifts.

"Ho there! Lives there one lad in whom still speech is
Of all the lusty throng that dawn heard sing
Full-throated as the thrush when he beseeches
Behind the thick-set bushes in the spring?

"All, all are dumb. My helm is slit, mine armour
Is riddled thro' and cloven in the fray,
Mine eyes weep blood. I hear a swollen clamour
Like foiled sea-breakers or loud wolves that bay.

"Come hither, old man-eater round me gliding,
Rive thro' my bosom with thy beak of steel—
The morn shall find us stark and still abiding—
Bear thou my warm heart to the girl that's leal.

"To far Upsala where the Jarls together,
With song and golden flagons hold carouse
Bear thou my heart, old rover of the heather,
To Ylmer's daughter who hath heard its vows.

"There shalt thou find her standing pale, uprightly
Aloft the tower where the daws wheel by,
And in her ears two silver rings hung lightly,
And her eyes brighter than a clear-starred sky.

"Tell her the love I bear her, dusky raven;
Lay down thy trophy whole and red of hue;
She'll know it well, the unblanching, the uncraven,
And Ylmer's daughter she shall smile on you.

"I die. From twenty wounds ebbs out my spirit.
Come wolves and drink my blood! My life is done.
Young, brave, unshaméd, I shall soon inherit
My seat where the high Gods are in the sun."





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