Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/163

Rh She spake, and on her face let fall her veil,

And bowed her head, and sate with folded hands.

Nor did the all-ruling Odin slight her word;

Straightway he spake, and thus addressed the gods:—

"Go quickly forth through all the world, and pray

All living and unliving things to weep

Balder, if haply he may thus be won."

When the gods heard, they straight arose, and took

Their horses, and rode forth through all the world.

North, south, east, west, they struck, and roamed the world,

Entreating all things to weep Balder's death;

And all that lived, and all without life, wept.

And as in winter, when the frost breaks up,

At winter's end, before the spring begins,

And a warm west-wind blows, and thaw sets in,

After an hour a dripping sound is heard

In all the forests, and the soft-strewn snow

Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes,

And from the boughs the snow-loads shuffle down;

And, in fields sloping to the south, dark plots

Of grass peep out amid surrounding snow,

And widen, and the peasant's heart is glad,—

So through the world was heard a dripping noise

Of all things weeping to bring Balder back;

And there fell joy upon the gods to hear.

But Hermod rode with Niord, whom he took

To show him spits and beaches of the sea

Far off, where some unwarned might fail to weep,—

Niord, the god of storms, whom fishers know;

Not born in heaven, he was in Vanheim reared,

With men, but lives a hostage with the gods;

He knows each frith, and every rocky creek