Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Belgium: Ghent | | The Emperor’s Glove | | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | | | “Combien faudrait-il de peaux d’Espagne pour faire un gant de cette grandeur?”—a play upon the words gant, a glove, and Gand, the French for Ghent. |
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ON St. Bavon’s tower, commanding | |
| Half of Flanders, his domain, | |
| Charles the Emperor was standing, | |
| While beneath him on the landing | |
| Stood Duke Alva and his train. | 5 |
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| Like a print in books of fables, | |
| Or a model made for show, | |
| With its pointed roofs and gables, | |
| Dormer windows, scrolls and labels, | |
| Lay the city far below. | 10 |
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| Through its squares and streets and alleys | |
| Poured the populace of Ghent; | |
| As a routed army rallies, | |
| Or as rivers run through valleys, | |
| Hurrying to their homes they went. | 15 |
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| “Nest of Lutheran misbelievers!” | |
| Cried Duke Alva as he gazed; | |
| “Haunt of traitors and deceivers, | |
| Stronghold of insurgent weavers, | |
| Let it to the ground be razed!” | 20 |
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| On the Emperor’s cap the feather | |
| Nods, as, laughing, he replies: | |
| “How many skins of Spanish leather | |
| Think you, would, if stitched together, | |
| Make a glove of such a size?” | 25 | | |
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