The Church of Brou. Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). Brou. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. France: Vols. IX-X

Verse > Anthologies > Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. > Poems of Places > France

CONTENTS · BOOK CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.

Brou

The Church of Brou

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)


I. THE CASTLE DOWN the Savoy valleys sounding,
Echoing round this castle old,
Mid the distant mountain chalets,
Hark! what bell for church is tolled?

In the bright October morning	5
Savoy’s Duke had left his bride,
From the castle, past the drawbridge,
Flowed the hunters’ merry tide.

Steeds are neighing, gallants glittering;
Gay, her smiling lord to greet,	10
From her mullioned chamber casement
Smiles the Duchess Marguerite.

From Vienna, by the Danube,
Here she came, a bride, in spring.
Now the autumn crisps the forest;	15
Hunters gather, bugles ring.

Hounds are pulling, prickers swearing,
Horses fret, and boar-spears glance;
Off! they sweep the marshy forests,
Westward, on the side of France.	20

Hark! the game ’s on foot; they scatter;—
Down the forest ridings lone,
Furious, single horsemen gallop.
Hark! a shout,—a crash,—a groan!

Pale and breathless came the hunters;	25
On the turf dead lies the boar:
God! the Duke lies stretched beside him,—
Senseless, weltering in his gore. * * * * *
In the dull October evening,
Down the leaf-strewn forest road,	30
To the castle, past the drawbridge,
Came the hunters with their load.

In the hall, with sconces blazing,
Ladies waiting round her seat,
Clothed in smiles, beneath the dais	35
Sate the Duchess Marguerite.

Hark! below the gates unbarring!
Tramp of men and quick commands!
“’T is my lord come back from hunting,”
And the Duchess claps her hands.	40

Slow and tired came the hunters,
Stopped in darkness in the court;
“Ho, this way, ye laggard hunters!
To the hall! what sport, what sport?”

Slow they entered with their master;	45
In the hall they laid him down.
On his coat were leaves and blood-stains;
On his brow an angry frown.

Dead, her princely youthful husband
Lay before his youthful wife;	50
Bloody, ’neath the flaring sconces:
And the sight froze all her life.

In Vienna, by the Danube,
Kings hold revel, gallants meet;
Gay of old amid the gayest	55
Was the Duchess Marguerite.

In Vienna, by the Danube,
Feast and dance her youth beguiled;
Till that hour she never sorrowed;
But from then she never smiled.	60

Mid the Savoy mountain valleys,
Far from town or haunt of man,
Stands a lonely church, unfinished,
Which the Duchess Maud began:

Old, that Duchess stern began it,	65
In gray age, with palsied hands;
But she died as it was building,
And the church unfinished stands;

Stands as erst the builders left it,
When she sunk into her grave.	70
Mountain greensward paves the chancel,
Harebells flower in the nave.

“In my castle all is sorrow,”
Said the Duchess Marguerite then;
“Guide me, vassals, to the mountains!	75
We will build the church again.”

Sandalled palmers, faring homeward,
Austrian knights from Syria came;
“Austrian wanderers bring, O warders,
Homage to your Austrian dame.”	80

From the gate the warders answered:
“Gone, O knights, is she you knew;
Dead our Duke, and gone his Duchess;
Seek her at the Church of Brou.”

Austrian knights and march-worn palmers	85
Climb the winding mountain way,
Reach the valley, where the fabric
Rises higher day by day.

Stones are sawing, hammers ringing;
On the work the bright sun shines:	90
In the Savoy mountain meadows,
By the stream, below the pines.

On her palfrey white the Duchess
Sate and watched her working train;
Flemish carvers, Lombard gilders,	95
German masons, smiths from Spain.

Clad in black, on her white palfrey;
Her old architect beside,—
There they found her in the mountains,
Morn and noon and eventide.	100

There she sate, and watched the builders,
Till the church was roofed and done;
Last of all the builders reared her
In the nave a tomb of stone.

On the tomb two forms they sculptured	105
Lifelike in the marble pale;
One, the Duke in helm and armor;
One, the Duchess in her veil.

Round the tomb the carved stone fretwork
Was at Eastertide put on;	110
Then the Duchess closed her labors;
And she died at the St. John.

II. THE CHURCH UPON the glistening leaden roof
Of the new pile the sunlight shines,
The stream goes leaping by.	115
The hills are clothed with pines sun-proof;
Mid bright green fields, below the pines,
Stands the church on high.
What church is this, from men aloof?
’T is the Church of Brou.	120

At sunrise, from their dewy lair
Crossing the stream, the kine are seen
Round the wall to stray;
The churchyard wall that clips the square
Of shaven hill-sward trim and green	125
Where last year they lay.
But all things now are ordered fair
Round the Church of Brou.

On Sundays, at the matin chime,
The Alpine peasants, two and three,	130
Climb up here to pray.
Burghers and dames, at summer’s prime,
Ride out to church from Chambery,
Dight with mantles gay.
But else it is a lonely time	135
Round the Church of Brou.

On Sundays, too, a priest doth come
From the walled town beyond the pass,
Down the mountain way;
And then you hear the organ’s hum,	140
You hear the white-robed priest say mass,
And the people pray.
But else the woods and fields are dumb
Round the Church of Brou.

And after church, when mass is done,	145
The people to the nave repair
Round the tomb to stray,
And marvel at the forms of stone,
And praise the chiselled broideries rare;
Then they drop away.	150
The princely pair are left alone
In the Church of Brou.

III. THE TOMB SO rest, forever rest, O princely pair!
In your high church, mid the still mountain air,
Where horn and hound and vassals never come.	155
Only the blessed saints are smiling dumb
From the rich painted windows of the nave
On aisle and transept and your marble grave;
Where thou, young Prince, shalt nevermore arise
From the fringed mattress where thy Duchess lies,	160
On autumn mornings, when the bugle sounds,
And ride across the drawbridge with thy hounds
To hunt the boar in the crisp woods till eve.
And thou, O Princess, shalt no more receive,
Thou and thy ladies, in the hall of state,	165
The jaded hunters, with their bloody freight,
Coming benighted to the castle gate.
So sleep, forever sleep, O marble pair!
And if ye wake, let it be then, when fair
On the carved western front a flood of light	170
Streams from the setting sun, and colors bright
Prophets, transfigured saints, and martyrs brave,
In the vast western window of the nave;
And on the pavement round the tomb there glints
A checker-work of glowing sapphire tints,	175
And amethyst, and ruby;—then unclose
Your eyelids on the stone where ye repose,
And from your broidered pillows lift your heads,
And rise upon your cold white marble beds,
And looking down on the warm rosy tints	180
That checker, at your feet, the illumined flints,
Say, “What is this? we are in bliss,—forgiven,—
Behold the pavement of the courts of Heaven!”—
Or let it be on autumn nights, when rain
Doth rustlingly above your heads complain	185
On the smooth leaden roof, and on the walls
Shedding her pensive light at intervals
The moon through the clere-story windows shines,
And the wind washes in the mountain pines.
Then, gazing up through the dim pillars high,	190
The foliaged marble forest where ye lie,
“Hush,” ye will say, “it is eternity.
This is the glimmering verge of heaven, and these
The columns of the heavenly palaces.”
And in the sweeping of the wind your ear	195
The passage of the angels’ wings will hear,
And on the lichen-crusted leads above
The rustle of the eternal rain of love.

CONTENTS · BOOK CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.

Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry