JOB. Hast thou ne'er heard men say <br />That, in the Black Wood, 'twixt Cologne and Spire, <br />Upon a rock flanked by the towering mountains, <br />A castle stands, renowned among all castles? <br />And in this fort, on piles of lava built, <br />A burgrave dwells, among all burgraves famed? <br />Hast heard of this wild man who laughs at laws-- <br />Charged with a thousand crimes--for warlike deeds <br />Renowned--and placed under the Empire's ban <br />By the Diet of Frankfort; by the Council <br />Of Pisa banished from the Holy Church; <br />Reprobate, isolated, cursed--yet still <br />Unconquered 'mid his mountains and in will; <br />The bitter foe of the Count Palatine <br />And Treves' proud archbishop; who has spurned <br />For sixty years the ladder which the Empire <br />Upreared to scale his walls? Hast heard that he <br />Shelters the brave--the flaunting rich man strips-- <br />Of master makes a slave? That here, above <br />All dukes, aye, kings, eke emperors--in the eyes <br />Of Germany to their fierce strife a prey, <br />He rears upon his tower, in stern defiance, <br />A signal of appeal to the crushed people, <br />A banner vast, of Sorrow's sable hue, <br />Snapped by the tempest in its whirlwind wrath, <br />So that kings quiver as the jades at whips? <br />Hast heard, he touches now his hundredth year-- <br />And that, defying fate, in face of heaven, <br />On his invincible peak, no force of war <br />Uprooting other holds--nor powerful Caesar-- <br />Nor Rome--nor age, that bows the pride of man-- <br />Nor aught on earth--hath vanquished, or subdued, <br />Or bent this ancient Titan of the Rhine, <br />The excommunicated Job?<br /><br />Victor Marie Hugo<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-first-black-flag/
