This page has been validated.
228
THE DANISH WARRIOR'S DEATH SONG.[1]
Away, away! your care is vain;
No leech could aid me now;
The chill of death is at my heart,
Its damp upon my brow.
Weep not—I shame to see such tears
Within a warrior's eyes:
Away! how can ye weep for him
Who in the battle dies?
If I had died with idle head
Upon my lady's knee,
Had Fate stood by my silken bed,
Then might ye weep for me:
But I lie on my own proud deck
Before the sea and sky;
The wind that sweeps my gallant sails
Will have my latest sigh.
My banner floats amid the clouds,
Another droops below:
Well with my heart's best blood is paid
Such purchase from a foe.
- ↑ As noted, this poem appears in The Vow of The Peacock, and Other Poems, 1835
