Explore "Tales of a Wayside Inn" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When Alcuin taught the sons of Charlemagne, / In the free schools of Aix, how kings should reign, / And with them taught the children of the poor / How subjects should be patient and endure, / He touched the lips of some, as best befit, / With honey from the hives of Holy Writ; / Others intoxicated with the wine / Of ancient history, sweet but less divine; / Some with the wholesome fruits of grammar fed; / Others with mysteries of the stars o'er-head, / That hang suspended in the vaulted sky / Like lamps in some fair palace vast and high.
In sooth, it was a pleasant sight to see / That Saxon monk, with hood and rosary, / With inkhorn at his belt, and pen and book, / And mingled lore and reverence in his look, / Or hear the cloister and the court repeat / The measured footfalls of his sandaled feet, / Or watch him with the pupils of his school, / Gentle of speech, but absolute of rule.