Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/108

What yonder rings? what yonder sings?
Why shrieks the owlet gray?"
"'Tis death bells' clang, 'tis funeral song,
The body to the clay.

"With song and clang, at morrow's dawn,
Ye may inter the dead:
To-night I ride, with my young bride,
To deck our bridal bed.

"Come with thy choir, thou coffin'd guest,
To swell our nuptial song!
Come priest, to bless our marriage feast!
Come all, come all along!"

Ceas'd clang and song; down sunk the bier;
The shrouded corpse arose:
And hurry, hurry! all the train
The thund'ring steed pursues.

And forward; forward! on they go;
High snorts the straining steed;
Thick pants the rider's labouring breath,
As headlong on they speed.

"O William, why this savage haste?
And where thy bridal bed?"
" 'Tis distant far."—"Still short and stern?"
"'Tis narrow, trustless maid."

"No room for me?"—"Enough for both;—
Speed, speed, my Barb, thy course;"
O'er thund'ring bridge, through boiling surge,
He drove the furious horse.

Tramp! tramp! along the land they rode,
Splash! Splash! along the sea;
The steed is wight, the spur is bright,
The flashing pebbles flee.

Fled past on right and left how fast
Each forest, grove, and bower;
On right and left fled past how fast
Each city, town, and tower.

"Dost fear? dost fear?—The moon shines clear;
Dost fear to ride with me?—
Hurrah! hurrah! The dead can ride!"
"O William, let them be!