Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

With more than mortal powers endow'd,
How high they soar'd above the crowd!
Theirs was no common party race,
Jostling by dark intrigue for place;
Like fabled Gods, their mighty war
Shook realms and nations in its jar;
Beneath each banner proud to stand,

170

Look'd up the noblest of the land,

Till through the British world were known
The names of PITT and Fox alone.

175

Spells of such force no wizard grave
E'er framed in dark Thessalian cave,
Though his could drain the ocean dry,
And force the planets from the sky.

These spells are spent, and, spent with these,

180

The wine of life is on the lees.

Genius, and taste, and talent gone,

For ever tomb'd beneath the stone,

Where-taming thought to human pride !—

The mighty chiefs sleep side by side.
Drop upon Fox's grave the tear,

185

'Twill trickle to his rival's bier;

O'er PITT'S the mournful requiem sound,
And Fox's shall the notes rebound.
The solemn echo seems to cry,-

190

'Here let their discord with them die. Speak not for those a separate doom,

Whom Fate made Brothers in the tomb;
But search the land of living men,
Where wilt thou find their like agen?'

195

Rest, ardent Spirits! till the cries

Of dying Nature bid you rise;

Not even your Britain's groans can pierce
The leaden silence of your hearse;

Then, O, how impotent and vain

This grateful tributary strain!

Though not unmark'd from northern clime,
Ye heard the Border Minstrel's rhyme:

200

His Gothic harp has o'er you rung;

The Bard you deign'd to praise, your deathless names has sung.

Stay yet, illusion, stay a while,

My wilder'd fancy still begúile!

From this high theme how can I part,

Ere half unloaded is my heart!

For all the tears e'er sorrow drew,

And all the raptures fancy knew,
And all the keener rush of blood,

That throbs through bard in bard-like mood,
Were here a tribute mean and low,

Though all their mingled streams could flow-
Woe, wonder, and sensation high,

205

210

215

In one spring-tide of ecstasy !—

It will not be-it may not last-
The vision of enchantment's past :
Like frostwork in the morning ray,
The fancied fabric melts away;
Each Gothic arch, memorial-stone,
And long, dim, lofty aisle, are gone;
And, lingering last, deception dear,
The choir's high sounds die on my ear.
Now slow return the lonely down,
The silent pastures bleak and brown,
The farm begirt with copsewood wild
The gambols of each frolic child,
Mixing their shrill cries with the tone
Of Tweed's dark waters rushing on.

Prompt on unequal tasks to run, Thus Nature disciplines her son: Meeter, she says, for me to stray, And waste the solitary day,

In plucking from yon fen the reed,

220

225

230

235

And watch it floating down the Tweed;
Or idly list the shrilling lay,

With which the milkmaid cheers her way,

Marking its cadence rise and fail,
As from the field, beneath her pail,
She trips it down the uneven dale:
Meeter for me, by yonder cairn,
The ancient shepherd's tale to learn;
Though oft he stop in rustic fear,
Lest his old legends tire the ear
Of one, who, in his simple mind,
May boast of book-learn'd taste refined.

But thou, my friend, canst fitly tell,
(For few have read romance so well,)
How still the legendary lay
O'er poet's bosom holds its sway;
How on the ancient minstrel strain
Time lays his palsied hand in vain;
And how our hearts at doughty deeds,
By warriors wrought in steely weeds,
Still throb for fear and pity's sake;

240

245

250

255

[blocks in formation]

265

He sought proud Tarquin in his den,
And freed full sixty knights; or when,
A sinful man, and unconfess'd,
He took the Sangreal's holy quest,
And, slumbering, saw the vision high,
He might not view with waking eye.

The mightiest chiefs of British song
Scorn'd not such legends to prolong :
They gleam through Spenser's elfin dream,
And mix in Milton's heavenly theme;

And Dryden, in immortal strain,
Had raised the Table Round again,

270

275

But that a ribald King and Court
Bade him toil on, to make them sport;
Demanded for their niggard pay,

Fit for their souls, a looser lay,
Licentious satire, song, and play;

The world defrauded of the high design,
Profaned the God-given strength, and marr'd
the lofty line.

Warm'd by such names, well may we then,

Though dwindled sons of little men,
Essay to break a feeble lance

In the fair fields of old romance;
Or seek the moated castle's cell,

280

285

[blocks in formation]

Shield, lance, and brand, and plume, and scarf,

Fay, giant, dragon, squire, and dwarf,

And wizard with his wand of might,

And errant maid on palfrey white.
Around the Genius weave their spells,

300

Pure Love, who scarce his passion tells;
Mystery, half veil'd and half reveal'd;
And Honour, with his spotless shield;
Attention, with fix'd eye; and Fear,

That loves the tale she shrinks to hear;
And gentle Courtesy; and Faith,
Unchanged by sufferings, time, or death;
And Valour, lion-mettled lord,
Leaning upon his own good sword.

305

Well has thy fair achievement shown, A worthy meed may thus be won; Ytene's oaks-beneath whose shade Their theme the merry minstrels made,

310

Of Ascapart, and Bevis bold,
And that Red King, who, while of old,
Through Boldrewood the chase he led,
By his loved huntsman's arrow bled-
Ytene's oaks have heard again
Renew'd such legendary strain ;

315

For thou hast sung, how He of Gaul,
That Amadis so famed in hall,

320

For Oriana, foil'd in fight

The Necromancer's felon might;

And well in modern verse hast wove
Partenopex's mystic love;

325

Hear, then, attentive to my lay,

A knightly tale of Albion's elder day.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »