Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “[Latin Hymn]” (Text-06) Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840, p. 12


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[[Latin Hymn]]

Mille, mille, mille,

Mille, mille, mille,

Decollavimus, unus homo!

Mille, mille, mille, mille, decollavimus!

Mille, mille, mille!

Vivat qui mille mille occidit!

Tantum vini habet nemo

Quantum sanguinis effudit!*

Which may be thus paraphrased:

A thousand, a thousand, a thousand,

A thousand, a thousand, a thousand,

We, with one warrior, have slain!

A thousand, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand,

Sing a thousand over again!

Soho! — let us sing

Long life to our king,

Who knocked over a thousand so fine!

Soho! — let us roar,

He has given us more

Red gallons of gore

Than all Syria can furnish of wine!

 


[[Footnotes]]

[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 12:]

*  Flavius Vopiscus says that the hymn which is here introduced, was sung by the rabble upon the occasion of Aurelian, in the Sarmatic war, having slain with his own hand nine hundred and fifty of the enemy.


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Notes:

This version shows the poem as it was reprinted, as part of the tale “Epimanes.” Unlike “The Haunted Palace” and “The Conqueror Worm,” also used as part of a tale, Poe never collected this poem outside of the story.


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[S:1 - TGA, 1840] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Latin Hymn (Text-06)