Tarantella

An Illustrated Poem from the Past

This one is a great poem to read aloud, or sing-chant. While it starts out light-hearted, young, and playful, it doesn’t end that way, making it far more haunting than it seems at first stanza.

Tarantella

Do you remember an Inn,

Miranda?

Do you remember an Inn?

And the tedding and the spreading

Of the straw for a bedding,

And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees,

And the wine that tasted of the tar?

And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers

(Under the dark of the vine verandah)?

Do you remember an Inn, Miranda,

Do you remember an Inn?

And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers

Who hadn’t got a penny,

And who weren’t paying any,

And the hammer at the doors and the Din?

And the Hip! Hop! Hap!

Of the clap

Of the hands to the twirl and the swirl

Of the girl gone chancing,

Glancing

Dancing,

Backing and advancing,

Snapping of the clapper to the spin,

Out and in—

And the Ting, Tong, Tang of the guitar!

Do you remember an Inn,

Miranda?

Do you remember an Inn?

Never more;

Miranda

Never more.

Only the high peaks hoar:

And Aragon a torrent at the door.

No sound

In the walls of the halls where falls

The tread

Of the feet of the dead to the ground.

No sound:

Only the boom

Of the far Waterfall like Doom.

—Hilaire Belloc

(as published in the 1929 edition of the World’s 1000 Best Poems, edited by Berton Braley)