OF Edenhall, the youthful Lord | |
| Bids sound the festal trumpet’s call; | |
| He rises at the banquet board, | |
| And cries, ’mid the drunken revellers all, | |
| “Now bring me the Luck of Edenhall!” | 5 |
| |
| The butler hears the words with pain, | |
| The house’s oldest seneschal, | |
| Takes slow from its silken cloth again | |
| The drinking-glass of crystal tall; | |
| They call it the Luck of Edenhall. | 10 |
| |
| Then said the Lord: “This glass to praise, | |
| Fill with red wine from Portugal!” | |
| The graybeard with trembling hand obeys; | |
| A purple light shines over all, | |
| It beams from the Luck of Edenhall. | 15 |
| |
| Then speaks the Lord, and waves it light: | |
| “This glass of flashing crystal tall | |
| Gave to my sires the Fountain-Sprite; | |
| She wrote in it, If this glass doth fall, | |
| Farewell then, O Luck of Edenhall! | 20 |
| |
| “’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!” | 25 |
| |
| 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. | 30 |
| |
| “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!” | 35 |
| |
| 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! | 40 |
| |
| 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. | 45 |
| |
| On the morrow the butler gropes alone, | |
| The graybeard 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. | 50 |
| |
| “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!” | 55 |
| |
