The Emperor's Glove
From St. Baron's tower, Emperor Charles overlooks Ghent while Duke Alva stands below him and calls for the city to be razed. Charles laughs and asks how much Spanish leather would make a glove that size, playing on the French words for glove and Ghent.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Narrative Poetry · 273 words
First lines
"Combien faudrait-il de peaux d'Espagne pour faire un gant de cette grandeur? " A play upon the words gant, a glove, and Gand, the French for Ghent.
On St. Baron's tower, commanding / Half of Flanders, his domain, / Charles the Emperor once was standing, / While beneath him on the landing / Stood Duke Alva and his train.
Like a print in books of fables, / Or a model made for show, / With its pointed roofs and gables, / Dormer windows, scrolls and labels, / Lay the city far below.
Through its squares and streets and alleys / Poured the populace of Ghent; / As a routed army rallies, / Or as rivers run through valleys, / Hurrying to their homes they went
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Five rhymed stanzas recount Charles overlooking Ghent, Alva demanding its destruction, and the Emperor answering with wordplay.
Tags
Ghent · imperial power · religious hostility · threatened destruction · wordplay
What this Textopian page supports
The Emperor's Glove is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry
- Length: 273 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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