| |
| THOU whose spell can raise the dead, | |
| Bid the prophet’s form appear. | |
| “Samuel, raise thy buried head! | |
| King, behold the phantom seer!” | |
| |
| Earth yawned; he stood the centre of a cloud: | 5 |
| Light changed its hue, retiring from his shroud: | |
| Death stood all glassy in his fixed eye; | |
| His hand was withered and his veins were dry; | |
| His foot, in bony whiteness, glittered there, | |
| Shrunken and sinewless, and ghastly bare: | 10 |
| From lips that moved not and unbreathing frame, | |
| Like caverned winds, the hollow accents came. | |
| Saul saw, and fell to earth, as falls the oak, | |
| At once, and blasted by the thunder-stroke. | |
| |
| “Why is my sleep disquieted? | 15 |
| Who is he that calls the dead? | |
| Is it thou, O king? Behold, | |
| Bloodless are these limbs, and cold: | |
| Such are mine; and such shall be | |
| Thine, to-morrow, when with me: | 20 |
| Ere the coming day is done, | |
| Such shalt thou be, such thy son. | |
| Fare thee well, but for a day; | |
| Then we mix our mouldering clay. | |
| Thou, thy race, lie pale and low, | 25 |
| Pierced by shafts of many a bow: | |
| And the falchion by thy side | |
| To thy heart, thy hand shall guide: | |
| Crownless, breathless, headless fall, | |
| Son and sire, the house of Saul!” | 30 |
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