Amazement in his van, with Flight combined; "Mighty Victor, mighty Lord, Is the sable warrior9 fled? 8 Thy son is gone: he rests among the dead, Fair laughs the Morn, and soft the Zephyr blows, Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm; "Fill high the sparkling bowl, The rich repast prepare: Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast: Close by the regal chair, Fell Thirst and Famine scowl A baleful smile upon their baffled guest. Lance to lance, and horse to horse? Long years of havoc urge their destined course, 8 Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress. 9 Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father. 10 Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster. 11 Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c., believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar. Revere his consort's 12 faith, his father's 13 fame, Above, below, the rose Twined with her blushing foe, we spread: The bristled boar 16 in infant gore Wallows beneath the thorny shade. Now, brothers, bending o'er th' accursed loom, III. "Edward, lo! to sudden fate (Weave we the woof: the thread is spun.) Half of thy heart we consecrate.17 (The web is wove: the work is done.) Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn Leave me unblest, unpitied, here to mourn: In yon bright track, that fires the western skies, But oh! what solemn scenes, on Snowdon's height Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul ! 12 Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown. 13 Henry the Fifth. 14 Henry the Sixth, very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown. 15 The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster. 16 The silver boar was the badge of Richard the Third; whence he was usually known, in his own time, by the name of The Boar. 17 Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret and sorrow for the loss of her are still to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places. No more our long-lost Arthur 18 we bewail All hail, ye genuine kings! 19 Britannia's issue, hail! "Girt with many a baron bold, Sublime their starry fronts they rear; And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old, In the midst, a form divine! Her eye proclaims her of the Briton line; What strings symphonious tremble in the air! "The verse adorn again Fierce War, and faithful Love, And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest. In buskined measures' 21 move Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain, With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. Gales from blooming Eden bear; And distant warblings 23 lessen on my ear, 18 It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairy-land, and should return again to reign over Britain. 19 Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island, which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor. 20 Taliessin, chief of the bards, flourished in the sixth century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration, among his countrymen. 22 Milton. 21 Shakspere. 23 The succession of poets after Milton's time. Fond, impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, And warms the nations with redoubled ray. The different doom our Fates assign; He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height BATTLE OF THE BALTIC. GRAY. OF Nelson and the North, Sing the glorious day's renown, All the might of Denmark's crown, In a bold determined hand, And the prince of all the land Like leviathans afloat, Lay their bulwarks on the brine; It was ten of April morn by the chime : As they drifted on their path, But the might of England flushed And her van the fleeter rushed O'er the deadly space between. "Hearts of oak!" our captains cried, when each gun, From its adamantine lips, Spread a death-shade round the ships, Like the hurricane eclipse Of the sun! Again! again! again! And the havoc did not slack, Till a feeble cheer the Dane To our cheering sent us back ; Their shots along the deep slowly boom;- As they strike the shattered sail; Out spoke the victor then, As he hailed them o'er the wave, So peace, instead of death, let us bring: To our king." Then Denmark blessed our chief, That he gave her wounds repose; |