Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COMING OF CHARLEMAGNE, by THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY


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First Line: To oggier spake king didier
Last Line: "that charlemagne is near."
Alternate Author Name(s): Macaulay, 1st Baron
Variant Title(s): Paraphrase Of A Passage In The Chronicle Of Monk Of St. Gall
Subject(s): Charlemagne (742-814)


TO Oggier spake King Didier:
"When cometh Charlemagne?
We looked for him in harvest;
We looked for him in rain.
Crops are reaped, and floods are past,
And still he is not here.
Some token show, that we may know
That Charlemagne is near."

Then to the King made answer
Oggier, the christened Dane:
"When stands the iron harvest
Ripe on the Lombard plain,
That stiff harvest which is reaped
With sword of knight and peer,
Then by that sign ye may divine
That Charlemagne is near.

"When round the Lombard cities
The iron flood shall flow,
A swifter flood than Ticin,
A broader flood than Po,
Frothing white with many a plume,
Dark blue with many a spear,
Then by that sign ye may divine
That Charlemagne is near."





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