Explore "The Golden Legend" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HUBERT standing by the gateway.
HUBERT. / How sad the grand old castle looks! / O'erhead, the unmolested rooks / Upon the turret's windy top / Sit, talking of the farmer's crop / Here in the court-yard springs the grass, / So few are now the feet that pass; / The stately peacocks, bolder grown, / Come hopping down the steps of stone, / As if the castle were their own; / And I, the poor old seneschal, / Haunt, like a ghost, the banquet-hall. / Alas! the merry guests no more / Crowd through the hospitable door; / No eyes with youth and passion shine, / No cheeks glow redder than the wine; / No song, no laugh, no jovial din / Of drinking wassail to the pin; / But all is silent, sad, and drear, / And now the only sounds I hear / Are the hoarse rooks upon the walls, / And horses stamping in their stalls!