Poems, Victor Hugo [highly recommended books TXT] 📗

VII.

THE BANQUET HALL.

The old stupendous hall has but one door, And in the dusk it seems that more and more The walls recede in space unlimited. At the far end there is a table spread That in the dreary void with splendor shines; For ceiling we behold but rafter lines. The table is arranged for one sole guest, A solitary chair doth near it rest, Throne-like, ‘neath canopy that droopeth down From the black beams; upon the walls are shown The painted histories of the olden might, The King of the Wends Thassilo’s stern fight On land with Nimrod, and on ocean wide With Neptune. Rivers too personified Appear—the Rhine as by the Meuse betrayed, And fading groups of Odin in the shade, And the wolf Fenrir and the Asgard snake. One might the place for dragons’ stable take. The only lights that in the shed appear Spring from the table’s giant chandelier With seven iron branches—brought from hell By Attila Archangel, people tell, When he had conquered Mammon—and they say That seven souls were the first flames that day. This banquet hall looks an abyss outlined With shadowy vagueness, though indeed we find In the far depth upon the table spread A sudden, strong, and glaring light is shed, Striking upon the goldsmith’s burnished works, And on the pheasants killed by traitor hawks. Loaded the table is with viands cold, Ewers and flagons, all enough of old To make a love feast. All the napery Was Friesland’s famous make; and fair to see The dishes, silver-gilt and bordered round With flowers; for fruit, here strawberries were found And citrons, apples too, and nectarines. The wooden bowls were carved in cunning lines By peasants of the Murg, whose skilful hands With patient toil reclaim the barren lands And make their gardens flourish on a rock, Or mountain where we see the hunters flock. Gold fountain-cup, with handles Florentine, Shows Acteons horned, though armed and booted fine, Who fight with sword in hand against the hounds. Roses and gladioles make up bright mounds Of flowers, with juniper and aniseed; While sage, all newly cut for this great need, Covers the Persian carpet that is spread Beneath the table, and so helps to shed Around a perfume of the balmy spring. Beyond is desolation withering. One hears within the hollow dreary space Across the grove, made fresh by summer’s grace, The wind that ever is with mystic might A spirit ripple of the Infinite. The glass restored to frames to creak is made By blustering wind that comes from neighboring glade. Strange in this dream-like place, so drear and lone, The guest expected should be living one! The seven lights from seven arms make glow Almost with life the staring eyes that show On the dim frescoes—and along the walls Is here and there a stool, or the light falls O’er some long chest, with likeness to a tomb. Yet was displayed amid the mournful gloom Some copper vessels, and some crockery ware. The door—as if it must, yet scarcely dare— Had opened widely to the night’s fresh air.

No voice is heard, for man has fled the place; But Terror crouches in the corners’ space, And waits the coming guest. This banquet hall Of Titans is so high, that he who shall With wandering eye look up from beam to beam Of the confused wild roof will haply seem To wonder that the stars he sees not there. Giants the spiders are, that weave with care Their hideous webs, which float the joists amid, Joists whose dark ends in griffins’ jaws are hid. The light is lurid, and the air like death, And dark and foul. Even Night holds its breath Awhile. One might suppose the door had fear To move its double leaves—their noise to hear.

VIII.

WHAT MORE WAS TO BE SEEN.

But the great hall of generations dead Has something more sepulchral and more dread Than lurid glare from seven-branched chandelier Or table lone with stately daïs near— Two rows of arches o’er a colonnade With knights on horseback all in mail arrayed, Each one disposed with pillar at his back And to another vis-à-vis. Nor lack The fittings all complete; in each right hand A lance is seen; the armored horses stand With chamfrons laced, and harness buckled sure; The cuissarts’ studs are by their clamps secure; The dirks stand out upon the saddle-bow; Even unto the horses’ feet do flow Caparisons,—the leather all well clasped, The gorget and the spurs with bronze tongues hasped, The shining long sword from the saddle hung, The battle-axe across the back was flung. Under the arm a trusty dagger rests, Each spiked knee-piece its murderous power attests. Feet press the stirrups—hands on bridle shown Proclaim all ready, with the visors down, And yet they stir not, nor is audible A sound to make the sight less terrible.

Each monstrous horse a frontal horn doth bear, If e’er the Prince of Darkness herdsman were, These cattle black were his by surest right, Like things but seen in horrid dreams of night. The steeds are swathed in trappings manifold, The armed knights are grave, and stern, and cold, Terrific too; the clench’d fists seem to hold Some frightful missive, which the phantom hands Would show, if opened out at hell’s commands. The dusk exaggerates their giant size, The shade is awed—the pillars coldly rise. Oh, Night! why are these awful warriors here?

Horses and horsemen that make gazers fear Are only empty armor. But erect And haughty mien they all affect And threatening air—though shades of iron still. Are they strange larvae—these their statues ill? No. They are dreams of horror clothed in brass, Which from profoundest depths of evil pass With futile aim to dare the Infinite! Souls tremble at the silent spectre sight, As if in this mysterious cavalcade They saw the weird and mystic halt was made Of them who at the coming dawn of day Would fade, and from their vision pass away. A stranger looking in, these masks to see, Might deem from Death some mandate there might be At times to burst the tombs—the dead to wear A human shape, and mustering ranks appear Of phantoms, each confronting other shade.

Grave-clothes are not more grim and sombre made Than are these helms; the deaf and sealed-up graves Are not more icy than these arms; the staves Of hideous biers have not their joints more strong Than are the joinings of these legs; the long Scaled gauntlet fingers look like worms that shine, And battle robes to shroud-like folds incline. The heads are skull-like, and the stony feet Seem for the charnel house but only meet. The pikes have death’s-heads carved, and seem to be Too heavy; but the shapes defiantly Sit proudly in the saddle—and perforce The rider looks united to the horse! The network of their mail doth clearly cross. The Marquis’ mortar beams near Ducal wreath, And on the helm and gleaming shield beneath Alternate triple pearls with leaves displayed Of parsley, and the royal robes are made So large that with the knightly harness they Seem to o’ermaster palfreys every way. To Rome the oldest armor might be traced, And men and horses’ armor interlaced Blent horribly; the man and steed we feel Made but one hydra with its scales of steel. Yet is there history here. Each coat of mail Is representant of some stirring tale. Each delta-shaped escutcheon shines to show A vision of the chief by it we know. Here are the blood-stained Dukes’ and Marquis’ line, Barbaric lords, who amid war’s rapine Bore gilded saints upon their banners still Painted on fishes’ skin with cunning skill. Here Geth, who to the Slaves cried “Onward go,” And Mundiaque and Ottocar—Plato And Ladisläus Kunne; and Welf who bore These words upon his shield his foes before; “Nothing there is I fear.” Otho blear-eyed, Zultan and Nazamustus, and beside The later Spignus, e’en to Spartibor Of triple vision, and yet more and more As if a pause at every age were made, And Antaeus’ fearful dynasty portrayed.

What do they here so rigid and erect? What wait they for—and what do they expect? Blindness fills up the helm ‘neath iron brows; Like sapless tree no soul the hero knows. Darkness is now where eyes with flame were fraught, And thrice-bored visor serves for mask of naught. Of empty void is spectral giant made, And each of these all-powerful knights displayed Is only rind of pride and murderous sin; Themselves are held the icy grave within. Rust eats the casques enamoured once so much Of death and daring—which knew kiss-like touch Of banner—mistress so august and dear— But not an arm can stir its hinges here; Behold how mute are they whose threats were heard Like savage roar—whose gnashing teeth and word Deadened the clarion’s tones; the helmets dread Have not a sound, and all the armor spread, The hauberks, that strong breathing seemed to sway, Are stranded now in helplessness alway To see the shadows, still prolonged, that seem To take at night the image of a dream.

These two great files reach from the door afar To where the table and the daïs are, Leaving between their fronts a narrow lane. On the left side the Marquises maintain Their place, but the right side the Dukes retain, And till the roof, embattled by Spignus, But worn by time that even that subdues, Shall fall upon their heads, these forms will stand The grades confronting—one on either hand. While in advance beyond, with haughty head— As if commander of this squadron dread— All waiting signal of the Judgment Day, In stone was seen in olden sculptors’ way Charlemagne the King, who on the earth had found Only twelve knights to grace his Table Round.

The crests were an assembly of strange things, Of horrors such as nightmare only brings. Asps, and spread eagles without beak or feet, Sirens and mermaids here and dragons meet, And antlered stags and fabled unicorn, And fearful things of monstrous fancy born. Upon the rigid form of morion’s sheen Winged lions and the Cerberus are seen, And serpents winged and finned; things made to fright The timid foe, alone by sense of sight. Some leaning forward and the others back, They looked a growing forest that did lack No form of terror; but these things of dread That once on barons’ helms the battle led Beneath the giant banners, now are still,

As if they gaped and found the time but ill, Wearied the ages passed so slowly by, And that the gory dead no more did lie Beneath their feet—pined for the battle-cry, The trumpet’s clash, the carnage and the strife, Yawning to taste again their dreadful life. Like tears upon the palfreys’ muzzles were The hard reflections of the metal there; From out these spectres, ages past exhumed, And as their shadows on the roof-beams loomed, Cast by the trembling light, each figure wan Seemed growing, and a monstrous shape to don, So that the double range of horrors made The darkened zenith clouds of blackest shade, That shaped themselves to profiles terrible.

All motionless the coursers horrible, That formed a legion lured by Death to war, These men and horses masked, how dread they are! Absorbed in shadows of the eternal shore, Among the living all their tasks are o’er. Silent, they seem all mystery to brave, These sphinxes whom no beacon light can save Upon the threshold of the gulf so near, As if they faced the great enigma here; Ready with hoofs, between the pillars blue To strike out sparks, and combats to renew, Choosing for battlefield the shades below, Which they provoked by deeds we cannot know, In that dark realm thought dares not to expound False masks from heaven lowered to depths profound.

IX.

A NOISE ON