trees, Heard the lapping of the water, 66 Sounds of music, words of wonder; Saw the moon rise from the water Rippling, rounding from the water, Saw the flecks and shadows on it, Whispered, "What is that, Nokomis?" And the good Nokomis answered: Up into the sky at midnight; A LEGEND. IN mediæval Rome, I know not where, There stood an image with its arm in air, And on its lifted finger, shining clear, A golden ring with the device, "Strike here!" With rubies, and the plates and knives were gold, And gold the bread and viands manifold. Around it, silent, motionless, and sad, Greatly the people wondered, though Were seated gallant knights in armor A secret stairway leading under The trembling clerk in speechless wonder gazed; ground; Down this he passed into a spacious Then from the table, by his greed “That which I am, I am; my fatal | Shattering the lambent jewel on the The image is the Adversary old, Whose beckoning finger points to realms of gold; Our lusts and passions are the downward stair That leads the soul from a diviner air; The knights and ladies, all whose flesh and bone By avarice have been hardened into stone; The clerk, the scholar whom the love of pelf Tempts from his books and from his nobler self. From MORITURI SALUTAMUS. 90 |