# Narrhalla

From The Knickerbocker, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 350–351.
NARRHALLA.
O’er an old ruined gateway Philosophus hung, And wildly his rattle And bell-cap he swung; And wildly he shouted His wanton halloo To the masquers who streamed O’er the pavement below: ‘To moonshine and torches Bright eyes add your light; Rush, rush to the revel! Be glorious to-night! Come dance to the organ; Be glad, one and all; Ye magnified monkeys, Come haste to my ball!’
As his mask bore a genial, An exquisite grin, Through the vine-covered portal Came guests sweeping in; Through torch-light and shadow, O’er terrace and stair, The halt and the healthy, The brown and the fair: ‘To-night hide your reason And sense in your pocket, And when we find leisure, At leisure we ’ll mock it; Let each sensible speaker Be jammed to the wall, Or kicked out of doorsm Ere we open our ball!
‘For the fool is a wise man, The wise man a fool, And the best of all lords Is a lord of mis-rule!’ Thus screamed the masked jester Aloud ’tween his teeth, But fiercely a proud lip Was curling beneath, And fiercely he muttered In different style, While madly his bell-cap He jingled the while: ‘I was cuffed when a sage, Now I ’m praised as buffoon; And since I do pipe, They shall dance to my tune! Yes, dance to the devil, Great, middling and small; Much good may it do them Who haste to my ball!
‘There are some who find folly A wearisome task; Beware lest you show it! Oh, loose not your mask! If fools, let them slumber, Or change with the crowd; Is wise, let them whisper, But never aloud. I know you, I know you! Peace, patience awhile! Be fools, but be masters Among the canaille; Think, think what you will, But like lunatics squall; And then you ’ll be leaders To-night in the ball!
‘Come, listen, good people! Hip! ho there! halloo! I ’ll tell you a story Both merry and true: I once lived in a city, An age ere the flood, Where all men were prudent, Wise, learned, and good: And was told in a vision To say to the town, That on the next Sunday Much rain would come down; And whoe’er should be spattered By one single drop, Must have all his reason Washed off by the slop: And all became crazy, The great and the small; In fact, just like us, Who are here at the ball!
‘But in those early ages, To add to their woes, They had no umbrellas, Or water-proof clothes; And as they were wise They all laughed at a dream, And, returning from meeting, Were soaked in the stream: So when I went out On that same afternoon, I found every mortal As wild as a loon; Yes, fairly demented, Uproarious all, Quite fit to be present To-night at the ball!
‘There was one jolly fellow Had dug up a pile Of bright yellow dust, Which he guarded the while; And several were fighting, And diverse were drunk, While some in polemics Were dreadfully sunk: And others were raising A terrible clamor, As they bid for a maiden Just brought to the hammer, While many were gabbling Of stocks’ rise and fall; Yes, you understand that, Some of you in the ball.’
‘The one-eyed may be great In the land of the blind; But a sage among fools Is a long way behind: For I really found out, To my great surprise, That I was the mad man And they were the wise; Lord! lord! how they hooted! One cried, rather stern, “Lo! here comes the dreamer! Quick! à la lanterne!” So I ran for my life From the crazy men all, Yes I, your great leader To-night in the ball!’
‘Yes, they were all glorious, I only was sad, How I longed to strike in With the rest and be mad! In a rut in the road, Still a puddle I found, And straight in that puddle My reason I drowned; I ought to have drunk it, But that I forgot, For scarce had I touched it, When reason was not: I would I had soaked me, Soul, marrow, and all, Like the maddest, the bravest Who scream in our ball.’
‘Ho! look at this pretzel, Or carnival cake; ’T is made in the form Of a two-headed snake; It hideth great mysteries, Great jokes, I may say; It is man, ’t is the world, ’T is the all of to-day, And its two heads betoken The sorrow and mirth, Or the wisdom and folly Which govern our earth; Or the pain and the pleasure, The bad and the good, Which circle in all things By dry land or flood; And it feeds on itself And it feeds on us all, As we feed upon it To-night at the ball.’
‘Hurrah for the bright world, So green and so round! Hurrah for the maidens That on it abound! Hurrah for the wild ones That give it a tone: Hurrah for the Master! Who claims it alone.’
(sotto voce)
Who will claim till he lose it, For thank God! some day These masks and our folly Must vanish away; Alas! that till then We must dance on the floor, And howl with the wolves Till their madness be o’er.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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