On the spire of the belfry,
Decked with a brazen cock, the friendly flames of the spring sun
Glanced like the tongues of fire beheld by Apostles aforetime."
Thus run the beautiful, stately hexameters, which, whatever cavilling
critics may say, are delightfully adapted for epic narrative in any
fairly polysyllabic language. And Swedish, which is the most sonorous of
all Germanic tongues, and full of Gothic strength, produces the most
delectable effects in the long, rolling line of slow-marching dactyls
and spondees. The tempered realism of Tegner, which shuns all that is
harsh and trite, accords well with the noble classical verse. He employs
it, as it were, to dignify his homely tale, as Raphael draped the
fishermen of Galilee in the flowing robes of Greek philosophers. The
description of the church, the rustic youth, and the patriarchal
clergyman has, however, the note of experience and the touch of earth
which we miss in the more declamatory passages. If, however, declamation
is anywhere in place it is in the three orations of the rural parson,
which occupy the larger portion of the poem.
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