Elsibardo
Posted on July 7, 2007 - Filed Under Gothic Poetry
By Jesse Blone in Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book, September 1852
Where the Rhine enlaps the vineyards,
And hills with columns towered:
Where the vales wear summer vestments,
Like bride with beauty dowered—
Dwells the lord of Elsibardo,
In his castle on the steeps,
Where the eagle builds his eyrie—
Where the vulture proudly sweeps.
When the moon down in the river
Finds a mirror clear and cold,
And the countless stars in heaven
Have unveiled their eyes of gold,
Does the lord of Elsibardo
Range the crags and valleys deep,
Where the fountains in the moonlight
Their unceasing murmur keep.
With his mantle wrapped around him,
And his unshorn hair in flow,
Does he gaze from off the highland
On the vale and stream below;
And the simple peasant, turning
From the vintage to his cot,
Shuns the hill of Elsibardo
As a wizard-haunted spot.
Wherefore frowns Lord Elsibardo
Whene’er shrilly at the gate
Calls the horse of weary horseman
As the day is waning late?
Ah! his soul is steeped in venom,
And his heart o’erflows with gall,
For his memory holds before him
The dark day of Wendefall:
Which beclouded o’er his boyhood
Like a heavy pall of years,
For it left him lone and lonely,
Yet a heritage of tears;
And ’tis bid within his bosom,
Like a serpent ‘mid the flowers—
But it dawns upon his vision
In the nightly watchful hours.
Morning shines on Elsibardo,
And a gay and laughing train,
That is circling up the highland
From the smiling flow’ry plain;
And the sun lights up the shimmer
And the sheen of peaceful spears,
With the proudly prancing horses
Bearing gallant cavaliers.
‘Tis the bride of Elsibardo,
With the lilies in her hair,
That was visioned in the valley
To her pallid lover there;
And who now is sadly gazing
To discern beyond the hill
But one glance of her whose presence
Ever made his bosom thrill.
But alas for Elsibardo,
And the maiden bending low,
Who is wedded to his life-grief,
To his agony and woe!
And her youthful cheek is pallid
As the lilies in her hair:
Ay, the heart of Elsibardo
Has a partner in despair.
