DEEP in a mountain's caverned hall, It is whispered low, Waits in a weird, sepulchral glow An armed phantom, crowned and tall, Whose hoary beard of centuries Grows on the gray stone where it lies; While jewelled knights with glittering eyes Glower round In trance profound. Anon, at age-long intervals, The ghostly king Sends a raven of sable wing From his stupendous prison-walls, To learn how near the fated hour When he may reassume the power, -- Behold! no raven comes again. Behold! the raven devours the slain! Vaults asunder Burst in thunder! Lo! in the hall of mirrors yonder, In a palace consecrate to all Age-long glories of the Gaul, A German wears imperial Purple: Barbarossa lives! The ghost of a dark age revives, And the heart of every freeman dies, Seeing him rise! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARIA CALLAS, THE WOMAN BEHIND THE LEGEND* by MADELINE DEFREES THE DISPUTE OF THE HEART AND BODY OF FRANCOIS VILLON by FRANCOIS VILLON WENDELL PHILLIPS by AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT TO A CHILD OF QUALITY, FIVE YEARS OLD. THE AUTHOR THAN FORTY by MATTHEW PRIOR UPON MY LADY CARLISLE'S WALKING IN HAMPTON COURT GARDEN by JOHN SUCKLING THE GYPSY by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS PRAYER FOR THIS HOUSE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER |