Laurel · Théophile Gautier · Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems

Bjorn's Banquet

Théophile Gautier (1811–1872), translated by Agnes Lee · 1903

iambic tetrameter · ABAB · 120 lines · from Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems

Bjorn, odd and lonely cenobite,High on a barren rock's plateau,Far out of time's and the world's sight,Dwells in a castle none may know.

No modern thought may violateHis darkened and secluded hall.Bjorn bolts with care his postern-gate,And barricades his castle wall.

When others wait the rising sun,He from his mouldering parapetStill contemplates the valley dun,Where he beheld the red sun set.

Securely doth the past enlockHis retrospective spirit lone.The pendulum within his clockWas broken centuries agone.

Waking the echoes wanders heBeneath his feudal arches drear,His ringing footsteps seeminglyFollowed by other footsteps clear.

Nor priests nor friends with him make bold,Nor burghers plain nor gentlemen;But his ancestral portraits holdA parley with him now and then.

And of a midnight, sparing himThe ennui of a lonely cup,Bjorn, harbouring a gloomy whim,Invites his ancestors to sup.

Forth stepping at the hour's grim stroke,Come phantoms armed from foot to head.Bjorn, quaking, to the solemn folkProffers with state the goblet red.

To seat itself each panoplyWith joints that grumble in revoltMaketh an angle with its knee,That creaketh like a rusty bolt;

Till all at once the suit of mail,Rude coffin of an absent bulk,Cleaving the silence with a wail,Falls in its chair, a clanking hulk.

Landgraves and burgraves, spare and stout,Come down from heaven or up from hell,The iron guests of many a bout,Arc bound within the midnight spell.

Their blow-indented helmets bearHeraldic beasts that bay and grin,Athwart the shades the red lights glareOn crest and ancient lambrequin.

Each empty, open casque now seemsLike to the helms of heraldries,Save for two strange and livid gleamsThat issue forth in threatening wise.

Seated is each old combatantIn the vast hall, at Bjorn's behest,And the uncertain shadows grantA swarthy page to every guest.

The liquors in the candle-shineTake on suspicious purples. AllThe viands in their gravy's wineGrow lurid and fantastical.

Sometimes a breastplate glitters bright,A morion speeds its flashes wroth,A rondelle from a hand of mightDrops heavily upon the cloth.

Heard are the softly flapping wingsOf unseen bats. The shimmer flicksUpon the carven panellingsThe banners of the heretics.

The stiffly bended gauntlets playIn the dull glow incarnadine,And, creaking, to the helmets grayPour bumpers full of Rhenish wine;

Or with their daggers keen of bladeCarve boars upon the plates of gold.The corridor's uncanny shadeHath clamours vague and manifold.

The orgy waxes riotsome--One could not hear God's voice for it--For when a phantom sups from home,What wrong if he carouse a bit?

Now every ghostly care they drownWith jokes and jeers and loud guffaws.A wine-cascade is running downEach rusty helmet's iron jaws.

The full and rounded hauberks bulge,And to the neck the river mounts.Their eyes with liquid fire effulge.They're howling drunk, these valiant counts!

One through the salad idly wieldsA foot; another scolds the sick.Some like the lions on their shieldsWith gaping mouths the fancy trick.

In voice still hoarse from silence longIn the tomb's dampness and restraint,Max playfully intones a songOf thirteen hundred, crude and quaint.

Albrecht, of quarrelsome repute,Stirs right and left a war intense,And drubs about with fist and foot,As once he drubbed the Saracens.

And heated Fritz his helmet doffs,Not deeming he's a headless trunk.Then down pell-mell mid roars and scoffsTogether roll the phantoms drunk.

Ah! 'T is a hideous battle-ground,Where pots and weapons bang and scud,Where every dead man through some woundDoth vomit victuals up for blood.

And Bjorn observes them, sad of eye,And haggard, while athwart the panesThe dawn comes creeping stealthily,With blue, thin lights, and darkness wanes.

The prostrate mass of rusty brownPales like a torch in daylight's room,Until the drunkest pours him downAt last the stirrup-cup of doom.

The cock crows loud. And with the dayOnce more with haughty mien and bold,Their revel-weary heads they layUpon their marble pillows cold.

Words in this poem 37

enlock v. t.: To lock; to inclose.
lone n.: A lane. See Loanin.
drear n.: Sadness; dismalness.
seemingly adv.: In appearance; in show; in semblance; apparently; ostensibly.
ennui n.: A feeling of weariness and disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from satiety or want of interest; tedium. T. Gray. [F., fr. L. in odio in hatred. See Annoy.]
folk n.: In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
panoply n.: Defensive armor in general; a full suit of defensive armor.
grumble v. i.: To murmur or mutter with discontent; to make ill-natured complaints in a low voice and a surly manner. [Cf. LG. grummeln, grumman, D. grommelen, grommen, and F. grommeler, of German origin; cf. W. grwm, murmur, grumble, surly. sq. root35. Cf. Grum, Grim.]
hulk n.: The body of a ship or decked vessel of any kind; esp., the body of an old vessel laid by as unfit for service. [OE. hulke a heavy ship, AS. hulc a light, swift ship; akin to D. hulk a ship of burden, G. holk, OHG. holcho; perh. fr. LL. holcas, Gr. Wolf, Holcad.]
grin n.: A snare; a gin. [AS. grin.]
glare v. i.: To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
lambrequin n.: A kind of pendent scarf or covering attached to the helmet, to protect it from wet or heat. [F. Cf. Lamboys, Label.]
casque n.: A piece of defensive or ornamental armor (with or without a vizor) for the head and neck; a helmet. [F. casque, fr. Sp. casco See Cask.]
behest v. t.: To vow. Paston.
lurid a.: Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. [L. luridus.]
fantastical a.: Fanciful; unreal; whimsical; capricious; fantastic.
morion n.: A kind of open helmet, without visor or beaver, and somewhat resembling a hat. [F. morion, Sp. morrion; cf. Sp. morra the upper part of the head, morro anything that is round.]
wroth a.: Full of wrath; angry; incensed; much exasperated; wrathful. [OE. wroth, wrap, AS. wraedh wroth, crooked, bad; akin to wriedhan to writhe, and to OS. wreedhangry, D. wreed cruel, OHG. reid twisted, Icel. reiedhr angry, Dan]
rondelle n.: A small round tower erected at the foot of a bastion. [Cf. Rondeau, Roundel.]
unseen a.: Not seen or discovered.
shimmer v. i.: To shine with a tremulous or intermittent light; to shine faintly; to gleam; to glisten; to glimmer. [OE. schimeren, AS. scimerian; akin to scimian, sciman, to glitter, D. schemeren, G. schimmern, Dan. skimre, Sw. skimra, AS. scima a light, brightness, Icel. ski]
carven a.: Wrought by carving; ornamented by carvings; carved.
stiffly adv.: In a stiff manner.
incarnadine a.: Flesh-colored; of a carnation or pale red color. [F. incarnadin, It. incarnatino; L. pref. in- in + caro, carnis, flesh. Cf. Carnation, Incarnate.]
rhenish a.: Of or pertaining to the river Rhine; as, Rhenish wine. [L. Rhenus the Rhine.]
uncanny a.: Not canny; unsafe; strange; weird; ghostly.
orgy n.: A frantic revel; drunken revelry. See Orgies
ghostly a.: Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
bulge n.: The bilge or protuberant part of a cask. [OE. bulge a swelling; cf. AS. belgan to swell, OSw. bulgja, Icel. bolginn swollen, OHG. belgan to swell, G. bulge leathern sack, Skr. b to be large, strong; the]
effulge v. t.: To cause to shine with abundance of light; to radiate; to beam. [L. effulgere to shine forth; ex + fulgere to flash, shine. See Fulgent.]
valiant a.: Vigorous in body; strong; powerful; as, a valiant fencer. [OE. valiant, F. vaillant, OF. vaillant, valant, originally p. pr. of OF. & F. valoir to be worth, L. valere to be strong. See Wield, and cf. Avail, Convalesce, ]
dampness n.: Moderate humidity; moisture; fogginess; moistness.
quaint a.: Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
headless a.: Having no head; beheaded; as, a headless body, neck, or carcass. [AS. heáfodleás.]
scud v. i.: To move swiftly; especially, to move as if driven forward by something. [Dan. skyde to shoot, shove, push, akin to skud shot, gunshot, a shoot, young bough, and to E. shoot. sq. root159. See Shoot.]
haggard a.: Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
haughty a.: High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Bjorn's Banquet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, the Agnes Lee translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Théophile Gautier, Bjorn's Banquet, in Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems (1903), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29521, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gautier-enamels-cameos/bjorn-s-banquet.html, id L27015.

Form and metre

Bjorn's Banquet is 120 lines in 30 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 29 of its 30 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).

See other poems in iambic tetrameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

1 ABAB cenobite^A · plateau^B · sight^A · know^B
2 ABAB violate^A · hall^B · gate^A · wall^B
3 ABAB sun^A · parapet^B · dun^A · set^B
4 ABAB enlock^A · lone^B · clock^A · agone^B
5 ABAB he^A · drear^B · seemingly^A · clear^B
6 ABAB bold^A · gentlemen^B · hold^A · then^B
7 ABAB him^A · cup^B · whim^A · sup^B
8 ABAB stroke^A · head^B · folk^A · red^B
9 ABAB panoply^A · revolt^B · knee^A · bolt^B
10 ABAB mail^A · bulk^B · wail^A · hulk^B
11 ABAB stout^A · hell^B · bout^A · spell^B
12 ABAB bear^A · grin^B · glare^A · lambrequin^B
13 ABAB seems^A · heraldries^B · gleams^A · wise^B
14 ABAB combatant^A · behest^B · grant^A · guest^B
15 ABAB shine^A · all^B · wine^A · fantastical^B
16 ABAB bright^A · wroth^B · might^A · cloth^B
17 ABAB wings^A · flicks^B · panellings^A · heretics^B
18 ABAB play^A · incarnadine^B · gray^A · wine^B
19 ABAB blade^A · gold^B · shade^A · manifold^B
20 ABAB riotsome^A · it^B · home^A · bit^B
21 ABAB drown^A · guffaws^B · down^A · jaws^B
22 ABAB bulge^A · mounts^B · effulge^A · counts^B
23 ABAB wields^A · sick^B · shields^A · trick^B
24 ABAB long^A · restraint^B · song^A · quaint^B
26 ABAB doffs^A · trunk^B · scoffs^A · drunk^B
27 ABAB ground^A · scud^B · wound^A · blood^B
28 ABAB eye^A · panes^B · stealthily^A · wanes^B
29 ABAB brown^A · room^B · down^A · doom^B
30 ABAB day^A · bold^B · lay^A · cold^B

Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Bjorn, odd and lonely cenobite,	8	···/˘/˘˘
High on a barren rock's plateau,	8	···/˘·˘/
Far out of time's and the world's sight,	8	········
Dwells in a castle none may know.	8	···/˘···
No modern thought may violate	8	·/˘··/˘˘
His darkened and secluded hall.	8	·/˘·˘/˘·
Bjorn bolts with care his postern-gate,	8	·····/˘·
And barricades his castle wall.	8	·/˘··/˘·
When others wait the rising sun,	8	·/˘··/˘·
He from his mouldering parapet	8	···/˘/˘·
Still contemplates the valley dun,	8	·/˘··/˘·
Where he beheld the red sun set.	8	··˘/····
Securely doth the past enlock	8	˘/˘···˘/
His retrospective spirit lone.	8	··˘/˘/˘·
The pendulum within his clock	8	·/˘˘····
Was broken centuries agone.	8	·/˘/˘˘˘/
Waking the echoes wanders he	8	/˘·/˘/˘·
Beneath his feudal arches drear,	8	···/˘/˘·
His ringing footsteps seemingly	8	·/˘/·/˘˘
Followed by other footsteps clear.	8	/˘·/˘/··
Nor priests nor friends with him make bold,	8	········
Nor burghers plain nor gentlemen;	8	·/˘··/˘˘
But his ancestral portraits hold	8	··˘/˘/˘·
A parley with him now and then.	8	·/˘·····
And of a midnight, sparing him	8	···/·/˘·
The ennui of a lonely cup,	9	·˘/˘··/˘·
Bjorn, harbouring a gloomy whim,	8	·/˘˘·/˘·
Invites his ancestors to sup.	8	˘/·/·˘··
Forth stepping at the hour's grim stroke,	8	·/˘··/··
Come phantoms armed from foot to head.	8	·/˘·····
Bjorn, quaking, to the solemn folk	8	·/˘··/˘·
Proffers with state the goblet red.	8	/˘···/˘·
To seat itself each panoply	8	··˘/·/˘˘
With joints that grumble in revolt	8	···/˘·˘/
Maketh an angle with its knee,	8	···/˘···
That creaketh like a rusty bolt;	8	·/˘··/˘·
Till all at once the suit of mail,	8	········
Rude coffin of an absent bulk,	8	·/˘··/˘·
Cleaving the silence with a wail,	8	/˘·/˘···
Falls in its chair, a clanking hulk.	8	·····/˘·
Landgraves and burgraves, spare and stout,	8	/·······
Come down from heaven or up from hell,	8	···/····
The iron guests of many a bout,	8	·/··/˘··
Arc bound within the midnight spell.	8	·····/··
Their blow-indented helmets bear	8	··˘/˘/˘·
Heraldic beasts that bay and grin,	8	˘/˘·····
Athwart the shades the red lights glare	8	˘/······
On crest and ancient lambrequin.	8	···/˘/˘˘
Each empty, open casque now seems	8	·/˘/˘···
Like to the helms of heraldries,	8	·····/˘˘
Save for two strange and livid gleams	8	·····/˘·
That issue forth in threatening wise.	8	·/˘··/˘·
Seated is each old combatant	8	/˘···˘/˘
In the vast hall, at Bjorn's behest,	8	······˘/
And the uncertain shadows grant	8	··˘/˘/··
A swarthy page to every guest.	8	·/˘··/˘·
The liquors in the candle-shine	8	·/˘··/˘·
Take on suspicious purples. All	8	··˘/˘/˘·
The viands in their gravy's wine	7	····/˘·
Grow lurid and fantastical.	8	·/˘·˘/˘˘
Sometimes a breastplate glitters bright,	8	˘/·/·/˘·
A morion speeds its flashes wroth,	9	·/˘˘··/˘·
A rondelle from a hand of might	9	·········
Drops heavily upon the cloth.	8	·/˘˘····
Heard are the softly flapping wings	8	···/˘/˘·
Of unseen bats. The shimmer flicks	8	·˘/··/˘·
Upon the carven panellings	8	···/˘···
The banners of the heretics.	8	·/˘··/˘˘
The stiffly bended gauntlets play	8	·/˘/˘/˘·
In the dull glow incarnadine,	8	····˘/˘˘
And, creaking, to the helmets gray	8	·/˘··/˘·
Pour bumpers full of Rhenish wine;	8	·/˘··/˘·
Or with their daggers keen of blade	8	···/˘···
Carve boars upon the plates of gold.	8	········
The corridor's uncanny shade	8	·/˘˘˘/˘·
Hath clamours vague and manifold.	8	·/˘··/˘·
The orgy waxes riotsome--	7	·/˘/˘··
One could not hear God's voice for it--	8	········
For when a phantom sups from home,	8	···/˘···
What wrong if he carouse a bit?	8	····˘/··
Now every ghostly care they drown	8	·/˘/˘···
With jokes and jeers and loud guffaws.	8	······˘/
A wine-cascade is running down	8	··˘/·/˘·
Each rusty helmet's iron jaws.	8	·/˘/˘/˘·
The full and rounded hauberks bulge,	8	···/˘···
And to the neck the river mounts.	8	·····/˘·
Their eyes with liquid fire effulge.	8	···/˘/˘/
They're howling drunk, these valiant counts!	8	·/˘··/˘·
One through the salad idly wields	8	···/˘/˘·
A foot; another scolds the sick.	8	··˘/˘···
Some like the lions on their shields	8	···/˘···
With gaping mouths the fancy trick.	8	·/˘··/˘·
In voice still hoarse from silence long	8	·····/˘·
In the tomb's dampness and restraint,	8	···/˘·˘/
Max playfully intones a song	8	·/˘˘˘/··
Of thirteen hundred, crude and quaint.	8	·///˘···
Albrecht, of quarrelsome repute,	8	/··/˘˘˘/
Stirs right and left a war intense,	8	······˘/
And drubs about with fist and foot,	8	········
As once he drubbed the Saracens.	8	·····/˘˘
And heated Fritz his helmet doffs,	8	·/˘··/˘·
Not deeming he's a headless trunk.	8	·/˘··/˘·
Then down pell-mell mid roars and scoffs	8	········
Together roll the phantoms drunk.	8	˘/˘··/˘·
Ah! 'T is a hideous battle-ground,	9	····/˘/˘·
Where pots and weapons bang and scud,	8	···/˘···
Where every dead man through some wound	8	·/˘·····
Doth vomit victuals up for blood.	8	·/˘/˘···
And Bjorn observes them, sad of eye,	8	··˘/····
And haggard, while athwart the panes	8	·/˘·˘/··
The dawn comes creeping stealthily,	8	···/˘/˘˘
With blue, thin lights, and darkness wanes.	8	·····/˘·
The prostrate mass of rusty brown	8	·/˘··/˘·
Pales like a torch in daylight's room,	8	·····/··
Until the drunkest pours him down	8	···/˘···
At last the stirrup-cup of doom.	8	···/˘···
The cock crows loud. And with the day	8	········
Once more with haughty mien and bold,	8	···/˘···
Their revel-weary heads they lay	8	·/˘/˘···
Upon their marble pillows cold.	8	···/˘/˘·

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