“’T was right a goblet the Fate should be Of the joyous race of Edenhall! Deep draughts drink we right willingly And willingly ring, with merry call, Kling! klang! to the Luck of Edenhall!”
First rings it deep, and full, and mild, Like to the song of a nightingale; Then like the roar of a torrent wild; Then mutters at last like the thunder’s fall, The glorious Luck of Edenhall.
“For its keeper takes a race of might, The fragile goblet of crystal tall; It has lasted longer than is right; Kling! klang!--with a harder blow than all Will I try the Luck of Edenhall!”
As the goblet ringing flies apart, Suddenly cracks the vaulted hall; And through the rift, the wild flames start; The guests in dust are scattered all, With the breaking Luck of Edenhall!
In storms the foe, with fire and sword; He in the night had scaled the wall, Slain by the sword lies the youthful Lord, But holds in his hand the crystal tall, The shattered Luck of Edenhall.
On the morrow the butler gropes alone, The greybeard in the desert hall, He seeks his Lord’s burnt skeleton,’ He seeks in the dismal ruin’s fall The shards of the Luck of Edenhall.
“The stone wall,” saith he, “doth fall aside, Down must the stately columns fall; Glass is this earth’s Luck and Pride; In atoms shall fall this earthly ball One day like the Luck of Edenhall!”
_Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from Uhland_
I will tell you of ane wondrous tale, As ever was told by man, Or ever was sung by minstrel meet Since this base world began:--
It is of ane May, and ane lovely May, That dwelt in the Moril Glen, The fairest flower of mortal frame, But a devil amongst the men;
For nine of them sticket themselves for love, And ten leaped in the main, And seven-and-thirty brake their hearts, And never loved women again.
But this bonnie May, she never knew A father’s kindly claim; She never was blessed in holy Church, Nor christened in holy name.
But there she lived an earthly flower Of beauty so supreme, Some feared she was of the Mermaid’s brood, Come out of the salt sea faeme.
Some said she was found in a Fairy Ring, And born of the Fairy Queen; For there was a rainbow behind the moon That night she first was seen.
And no man could look on her face And eyne that beamed so dear But felt a sting go through his heart, Far sharper than a spear.