The Raven into the chamber sped,
Where Hildebrand drank the wine so red.
“Hear thou, Hildebrand the young,
Thy sister’s into durance flung.
“Here art thou sitting and drinking wine,
To-morrow they’ll burn sweet sister thine.”
Hildebrand sprang the table o’er,
Dashing the wine on the marble floor.
Hildebrand hies him into the stall,
There he beholds the coursers all.
He viewed the brown, and the gray as well,
On the black he laid the gilded selle.
“Blacklille, Blacklille, if me thou’lt bear,
Thou on winnowed wheat all thy days shalt fare.”
“Then willingly, willingly, thee I’ll bear,
But to breathe my name thou must not dare.”
He placed himself Blacklille’s back upon,
And across the sea then away he ran.
And when to the midst of the Sound they came,
He in evil hour uttered Blacklille’s name.