Rest with your still and solemn fame; But we on changeful days are cast, ENGLAND'S DEAD. SON of the ocean isle! Where sleep your mighty dead? Show me what high and stately pile Is rear'd o'er Glory's bed. Go, stranger! track the deep, Free, free the white sail spread! Wave may not foam, nor wild wind sweep, Where rest not England's dead. On Egypt's burning plains, With fearful power the noonday reigns, And the palm-trees yield no shade. But let the angry sun From heaven look fiercely red, Unfelt by those whose task is done!— The hurricane hath might And far by Ganges' banks at night, But let the sound roll on! It hath no tone of dread, For those that from their toils are gone;- Loud rush the torrent-floods And free, in green Columbia's woods, But let the floods rush on! The mountain-storms rise high And toss the pine-boughs through the sky, But let the storm rage on! Let the fresh wreaths be shed! For the Roncesvalles' field is won,There slumber England's dead. On the frozen deeps repose 'Tis a dark and dreadful hour, When round the ship the ice-fields close, And the northern night-clouds lower. But let the ice drift on! Let the cold-blue desert spread! Their course with mast and flag is done,- The warlike of the isles, The men of field and wave! Go, stranger! track the deep, THE MEETING OF THE BARDS. WRITTEN FOR AN EISTEDDVOD, OR MEETING OF HELD IN LONDON, MAY 22, 1822. [The Gorseddau, or meetings of the British bards, were anciently ordained to be held in the open air, on some conspicuous situation, whilst the sun was above the horizon; or, according to the expression employed on these occasions, "in the face of the sun, and in the eye of light." The places set apart for this purpose were marked out by a circle of stones, called the circle of federation. The presiding bard stood on a large stone (Maen Gorsedd, or the stone of assembly) in the centre. The sheathing of a sword upon this stone was the ceremony which announced the opening of a Gorsedd, or meeting. The bards always stood in their uni-coloured robes, with their heads and feet uncovered, within the circle of federation. See OWEN's Translation of the Heroic Elegies of Llywarch Hen.] WHERE met our bards of old?-the glorious throng, caves, They met where woods made moan o'er warriors' graves, And where the torrent's rainbow spray was cast, And where the Carnedd,' on its lonely hill, And where the Druid's ancient Cromlech frown'd, In the sun's face, beneath the eye of light, 1 Carnedd, a stone-barrow, or cairn. 'Cromlech, a Druidical monument or altar. The word means a stone of covenant. Whence came the echoes to those numbers high? Thence, deeply mingling with the torrent's roar, Sent forth proud answers to her children's voice. 'Midst the stone-circles, hallow'd thus of old; But, as the stream (though time or art may turn 1 The ancient British chiefs frequently harangued their followers from small artificial mounts of turf. 'Llyn, a lake or pool. See Pennant. |