The Burial of Harold

Stern Harold hath stiffened beneath his tall shield,
For the Normans have slain him on Hastings' red field;
And William hath sworn in the hour of his pride,
That the raven shall rend him e'en there as he died.

Ten marks of red gold, Canon Osgod hath paid
For suff'rance to bury the bones of the dead ;
And the hawk from his wrist Ailric Forester gave,
To win for the Lord of his childhood a grave.

" Away with your dead ! " cried the Bastard at last,
So on to the red field of battle they pass'd ;
But in vain by the heaps Canon Osgod went by,
And vain the keen glance of the Falconer's eye.

"Bring Edith!" they said (whom the bard in his theme,
Once named to proud Harold, "the Swan of the Stream)."
She came, and they found her bent low at his side —
Could Death hide the warrior from Edith, his bride ?

" Now, the Canon to Mass and the Hunter to horn !"
She shrieked in her anguish and laughed in her scorn —
" See the hand ! the red hand that long pillowed my rest !
And the brow, the cold brow, that lay warm on my breast !"