SAY that the men of the old black tower, <br />Though they but feed as the goatherd feeds, <br />Their money spent, their wine gone sour, <br />Lack nothing that a soldier needs, <br />That all are oath-bound men: <br />Those banners come not in. <br /> <br />There in the tomb stand the dead upright, <br />But winds come up from the shore: <br />They shake when the winds roar, <br />Old bones upon the mountain shake. <br /> <br />Those banners come to bribe or threaten, <br />Or whisper that a man's a fool <br />Who, when his own right king's forgotten, <br />Cares what king sets up his rule. <br />If he died long ago <br />Why do yopu dread us so? <br /> <br />There in the tomb drops the faint moonlight, <br />But wind comes up from the shore: <br />They shake when the winds roar, <br />Old bones upon the mountain shake. <br /> <br />The tower's old cook that must climb and clamber <br />Catching small birds in the dew of the morn <br />When we hale men lie stretched in slumber <br />Swears that he hears the king's great horn. <br />But he's a lying hound: <br />Stand we on guard oath-bound! <br /> <br />There in the tomb the dark grows blacker, <br />But wind comes up from the shore: <br />They shake when the winds roar, <br />Old bones upon the mountain shake.<br /><br />William Butler Yeats<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-black-tower/
