Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
The Belfry of Bruges and Other PoemsThe Belfry of Bruges
I
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o’er the town.
And the world threw off the darkness, like the weeds of widowhood.
Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay.
Wreaths of snow-white smoke, ascending, vanished, ghost-like, into air.
But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower.
And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more distant than the sky.
With their strange, unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes,
And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar.
They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again;
Lyderick du Bucq and Cressy, Philip, Guy de Dampierre.
Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold;
Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.
I beheld the gentle Mary, hunting with her hawk and hound;
And the armèd guard around them, and the sword unsheathed between.
Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold;
Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon’s nest.
And again the wild alarum sounded from the tocsin’s throat;
“I am Roland! I am Roland! there is victory in the land!”
Chased the phantoms I had summoned back into their graves once more.
Lo! the shadow of the belfry crossed the sun-illumined square.