The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed With a Memoir by the Rev. Derwent Coleridge. Fourth Edition. In Two Volumes |
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ENIGMA. A BOTTLE |
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 | The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed |  |
388
IV. ENIGMA. A BOTTLE
A Templar kneeled at a Friar's knee:
He was a comely youth to see,
With curling locks, and forehead high,
And flushing cheek, and flashing eye;
And the Monk was as jolly and large a man
As ever laid lip to a convent can
Or called for a contribution,
As ever read at midnight hour
Confessional in lady's bower,
Ordained for a peasant the penance whip,
Or spoke for a noble's venial slip
A venal absolution.
He was a comely youth to see,
With curling locks, and forehead high,
And flushing cheek, and flashing eye;
And the Monk was as jolly and large a man
As ever laid lip to a convent can
Or called for a contribution,
As ever read at midnight hour
Confessional in lady's bower,
Ordained for a peasant the penance whip,
Or spoke for a noble's venial slip
A venal absolution.
“O Father! in the dim twilight
I have sinned a grievous sin to-night;
And I feel hot pain e'en now begun
For the fearful murder I have done.
I have sinned a grievous sin to-night;
And I feel hot pain e'en now begun
For the fearful murder I have done.
“I rent my victim's coat of green,
I pierced his neck with my dagger keen;
The red stream mantled high:
I grasped him, Father, all the while,
With shaking hand, and feverish smile,
And said my jest, and sang my song,
And laughed my laughter, loud and long,
Until his glass was dry!
I pierced his neck with my dagger keen;
The red stream mantled high:
389
With shaking hand, and feverish smile,
And said my jest, and sang my song,
And laughed my laughter, loud and long,
Until his glass was dry!
“Though he was rich, and very old,
I did not touch a grain of gold,
But the blood I drank from the bubbling vein
Hath left on my lip a purple stain!”
I did not touch a grain of gold,
But the blood I drank from the bubbling vein
Hath left on my lip a purple stain!”
“My son! my son! for this thou hast done;
Though the sands of thy life for aye should run,”
The merry Monk did say,
“Though thine eye be bright, and thine heart be light,
Hot spirits shall haunt thee all the night,
Blue devils all the day!”
Though the sands of thy life for aye should run,”
The merry Monk did say,
“Though thine eye be bright, and thine heart be light,
Hot spirits shall haunt thee all the night,
Blue devils all the day!”
The thunders of the Church were ended;
Back on his way the Templar wended;
But the name of him the Templar slew
Was more than the Inquisition knew.
Back on his way the Templar wended;
But the name of him the Templar slew
Was more than the Inquisition knew.
| The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed | |