ve my head,
These grim birds tormented me
Far beyond all other things!

Slowly, gruesomely they moved
Their accursed wings and bent
Low to me with monstrous bills,
Bills like human noses huge.

Where had I such noses seen?
Well, mayhap in Hamburg once,
Or in Frankfort's ghetto dim;
Memory smote me harshly then.

But at last did slumber quite
Overcome me and in place
Of such waking phantoms crept
Wholesome and unbroken dreams.

And within my dream the hut
Quickly to a ball-room changed,
High on lofty pillars borne
And illumed by chandeliers.

There invisible musicians
Played from "Robert le Diable"
That atrocious dance of nuns
As I promenaded there.

But at last the portals wide
Open and with stately step
Slowly in the hall appear
Guests most wonderful and strange.

Every one a bear or spectre!
Striding upright every bear
Leads an apparition wrapped
In a white and gleaming shroud.

Coupled in this wise, each pair
Up and down began to waltz
Through the hall. O strangest sight!
Fit for laughter and for fear!

How those plump old animals
Panted in the paces set
By those filmy shapes of air
Whirling gracefully and light!

Pitiless, the harried beasts
Thus were borne along until
Their deep panting overdroned
Even the orchestral bass!

When betimes the couples crashed
In collision, then each bear
Gave the pushing spectre straight
Hearty kicks upon the rump.

Sometimes in the tumult too
When the cerements fell away
From each white and muffled head,--
Lo! a grinning skull appeared!

But at last with shattering blare
Yelled the horns, the cymbals clashed
And the thunder of the drums
Brought about the gallopade.

But the end of this, alas,
Came not to my dreams. For, lo,
One most clumsy bear trod full
On my corns--I shrieked and woke!

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CANTO XXII

Phoebus in his solar coach,
Whipping up his steeds of flame,
Had traversed the middle part
Of his journey through the skies,

Whilst in sleep I lay a-dream
With the goblins and the bears
Winding like mad arabesques
Through my slack and heated brain.

When I