The First Black Flag

JOB. Hast thou ne'er heard men sayThat, in the Black Wood, 'twixt Cologne and Spire,Upon a rock flanked by the towering mountains,A castle stands, renowned among all castles?And in this fort, on piles of lava built,A burgrave dwells, among all burgraves famed?Hast heard of this wild man who laughs at laws--Charged with a thousand crimes--for warlike deedsRenowned--and placed under the Empire's banBy the Diet of Frankfort; by the CouncilOf Pisa banished from the Holy Church;Reprobate, isolated, cursed--yet stillUnconquered 'mid his mountains and in will;The bitter foe of the Count PalatineAnd Treves' proud archbishop; who has spurnedFor sixty years the ladder which the EmpireUpreared to scale his walls? Hast heard that heShelters the brave--the flaunting rich man strips--Of master makes a slave? That here, aboveAll dukes, aye, kings, eke emperors--in the eyesOf Germany to their fierce strife a prey,He rears upon his tower, in stern defiance,A signal of appeal to the crushed people,A banner vast, of Sorrow's sable hue,Snapped by the tempest in its whirlwind wrath,So that kings quiver as the jades at whips?Hast heard, he touches now his hundredth year--And that, defying fate, in face of heaven,On his invincible peak, no force of warUprooting other holds--nor powerful Cæsar--Nor Rome--nor age, that bows the pride of man--Nor aught on earth--hath vanquished, or subdued,Or bent this ancient Titan of the Rhine,The excommunicated Job?