University of Virginia Library

VII. The Vow of Balder.

Bright Balder cried, ‘Curst be this thing
Which will not let man rest,
Slaying with swift and cruel sting
The very babe at breast!
‘On man and beast, on flower and bird,
He creepeth evermore;
Unseen he haunts the Earth; unheard
He crawls from door to door.
‘I will not pause in any land,
Nor sleep beneath the skies,
Till I have held him by the hand
And gazed into his eyes!’