The Skeleton in Armor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Speak! speak I thou fearful guest
Who, with thy hollow breast
Still in rude armor drest,
        Comest to daunt me!
Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
Bat with thy fleshless palms
Stretched, as if asking alms,
        Why dost thou haunt me?"

Then, from those cavernous eyes
Pale flashes seemed to rise,
As when the Northern skies
        Gleam in December;
And, like the water's flow
Under December's snow,
Came a dull voice of woe
        From the heart's chamber.

"I was a Viking old!
My deeds, though manifold,
No Skald in song has told,
        No Saga taught thee!
Take heed, that in thy verse
Thou dost the tale rehearse,
Else dread a dead man's curse;
        For this I sought thee.