English Narrative Poems

Narrative poetry, English; Readers -- Poetry

The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,                   245
    And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
    And honey-bees had lost their stings,
    And horses were born with eagles' wings:
    And just as I became assured
    My lame foot would be speedily cured,                            250
    The music stopped and I stood still,
    And found myself outside the hill,
    Left alone against my will,
    To go now limping as before,
    And never hear of that country more!"                            255


    XIV

    Alas, alas! for Hamelin!
      There came into many a burgher's pate
      A text which says that heaven's gate
      Opes to the rich at as easy rate
    As the needle's eye[260] takes a camel in!                       260
    The Mayor sent East, West, North, and South,
    To offer the Piper, by word of mouth,
      Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
    Silver and gold to his heart's content,
    If he'd only return the way he went,                             265
      And bring the children behind him.
    But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
    And Piper and dancers were gone forever,
    They made a decree that lawyers never
      Should think their records dated duly                          270
    If, after the day of the month and year,
    These words did not as well appear,
    "And so long after what happened here
      On the Twenty-second of July,
    Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:"                               275
    And the better in memory to fix
    The place of the children's last retreat,
    They called it the Pied Piper's Street--
    Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
    Was sure for the future to lose his labor.                       280
    Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern
      To shock with mirth a street so solemn;
    But opposite the place of the cavern
      They wrote the story on a column,
    And on the great church-window painted                           285
    The same, to make the world acquainted
    How their children were stolen away,
    And there it stands to this very day.
    And I must not omit to say
    That in Transylvania there's a tribe                             290
    Of alien people who ascribe
    The outlandish ways and dress
    On which their neighbors lay such stress,
    To their fathers and mothers having risen
    Out of some subterraneous prison                                 295
    Into which they were trepanned
    Long time ago in a mighty band
    Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
    But how or why, they don't understand.


    XV

    So, Willy, let me and you be wipers                              300
    Of scores out with all men--especially pipers!
    And, whether they pipe us free fróm rats or fróm mice,
    If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!




HERVÉ RIEL


    I

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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English Narrative Poems

Narrative poetry, English; Readers -- Poetry

The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,                   245
    And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
    And honey-bees had lost their stings,
    And horses were born with eagles' wings:
    And just as I became assured
    My lame foot would be speedily cured,                            250
    The music stopped and I stood still,
    And found myself outside the hill,
    Left alone against my will,
    To go now limping as before,
    And never hear of that country more!"                            255


    XIV

    Alas, alas! for Hamelin!
      There came into many a burgher's pate
      A text which says that heaven's gate
      Opes to the rich at as easy rate
    As the needle's eye[260] takes a camel in!                       260
    The Mayor sent East, West, North, and South,
    To offer the Piper, by word of mouth,
      Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
    Silver and gold to his heart's content,
    If he'd only return the way he went,                             265
      And bring the children behind him.
    But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
    And Piper and dancers were gone forever,
    They made a decree that lawyers never
      Should think their records dated duly                          270
    If, after the day of the month and year,
    These words did not as well appear,
    "And so long after what happened here
      On the Twenty-second of July,
    Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:"                               275
    And the better in memory to fix
    The place of the children's last retreat,
    They called it the Pied Piper's Street--
    Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
    Was sure for the future to lose his labor.                       280
    Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern
      To shock with mirth a street so solemn;
    But opposite the place of the cavern
      They wrote the story on a column,
    And on the great church-window painted                           285
    The same, to make the world acquainted
    How their children were stolen away,
    And there it stands to this very day.
    And I must not omit to say
    That in Transylvania there's a tribe                             290
    Of alien people who ascribe
    The outlandish ways and dress
    On which their neighbors lay such stress,
    To their fathers and mothers having risen
    Out of some subterraneous prison                                 295
    Into which they were trepanned
    Long time ago in a mighty band
    Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
    But how or why, they don't understand.


    XV

    So, Willy, let me and you be wipers                              300
    Of scores out with all men--especially pipers!
    And, whether they pipe us free fróm rats or fróm mice,
    If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!




HERVÉ RIEL


    I

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

English Narrative Poems

English Narrative Poems

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