Classic Poem

High sounding, terse and energetic tongue,
Like boreal winds, impetuous and rough;
There rings in thee the manly, haughty stuff
That suits a brawny chest, a Harold's lung.

Thy harsher beauties by old minstrels sung,
When tamed to deeper calm, were sweet enough
To please the robust Saxons, brave and bluff,
Who mouthed thy consonants when thou wast young.

But when thy short, sharp words fall on my ears
From tutored lips, their rich and powerful sound
Clangs like steel rapiers smiting brazen shields.
I picture up a revel of hostile spears,
And hear King Arthur to his foes around
Trumpet defiant words on battle-fields!