Ingeborg the Fair

Nora Hopper Chesson

1871 to 1906

Poem Image

"Hoist up, hoist up your silken sails 
And flee in teeth of outland gales: 
Better be dead and past all care 
Than look on Ingeborg the Fair. 

"Hoist up, hoist up your silken sails, 
Stop ears against her nightingales: 
The seagull's song to Norseman's ear 
Rings far more sweet and far more dear. 

"Hoist up, hoist up your sails of gray, 
And turn the Serpent's head away. 
Vikings, be deaf and dumb and blind, 
And leave white Ingeborg behind." 

But folded hangs the silken sail, 
And weary grows the northland gale: 
Captain and crew and minstrel all 
Sit careless in the golden hall. 

Tho' loud the north wind calls, and long 
The burden of the minstrel's song — 
Burden of wives and maids that wait 
Their Vikings by the water's gate. 

"Hoist up, hoist up your silken sails, 
Flee in the teeth of outland gales: 
Better be dead and past all care 
Than look on Ingeborg the Fair."