There have been words, which earth grew pale High hopes o'erthrown!-It is, when lands rejoice, to hear, Breathed from the cavern's misty chambers nigh: There have been voices, through the sunny sky, And the pine-woods, their choral hymn-notes sending, And reeds and lyres, their Dorian melody, With incense-clouds around the temple blending, And throngs, with laurel-boughs, before the altar bending. 'There have been treasures of the seas and isles Brought to the day-god's now forsaken throne: Thunders have pealed along the rock-defiles, When the far-echoing battle-horn made known That foes were on their way!--the deep-wind's moan Hath chilled the invader's heart with secret fear, And from the Sibyl-grottoes, wild and lone, Storms have gone forth, which, in their fierce career, From his bold hand have struck the banner and the spear. The shrine hath sunk!-but thou unchanged art there! Mount of the voice and vision, robed with dreams! Unchanged, and rushing through the radiant air, With thy dark-waving pines, and flashing streams, And all thy founts of song! their bright course teems With inspiration yet; and each dim haze, Or golden cloud which floats around thee, seems As with its mantle, veiling from our gaze The mysteries of the past, the gods of elder days! Away, vain phantasies!-doth less of power Dwell round thy summit, or thy cliffs invest, Though in deep stillness now, the ruin's flower Wave o'er the pillars mouldering on thy breast? -Lift through the free blue heavens thine arrowy crest! Let the great rocks their solitude regain! No Delphian lyres now break thy noontide rest With their full chords :--but silent be the strain! Thou hast a mightier voice to speak th' Eternal's reign!* THE FESTAL HOUR. That shake the startled earth ?-When wakes the foe, Fear ye the festal hour! When mirth o'erflows, then tremble!—'T was a night Of gorgeous revel, wreaths, and dance, and light, The trumpet pealed, ere yet the song was done, The marble shrines were crowned: Young voices, through the blue Athenian sky, And censers waved around; Fearless and free, the sword with myrtles bound!* Through Rome a triumph passed. Rich in her sun-god's mantling beams went by That long array of glorious pageantry, With shout and trumpet-blast. An empire's gems their starry splendor shed O'er the proud march; a king in chains was led ; A stately victor, crowned and robed, came last.† And many a Dryad's bower Had lent the laurels, which in waving play, Stirred the warm air, and glistened round his way, As a quick-flashing shower. -O'er his own porch, meantime, the cypress hung, Through his fair halls a cry of anguish rungWo for the dead!-the father's broken flower! A sound of lyre and song, In the still night, went floating o'er the Nile, Whose waves, by many an old mysterious pile, Swept with that voice along; And lamps were shining o'er the red wine's foam, Where a chief revelled in a monarch's dome, And fresh rose-garlands decked a glittering throng. 'T was Antony that bade The joyous chords ring out!—but strains arose Shook Alexandria through her streets that night, The sword of Harmodius. ↑ Paulus Æmilius, one of whose sons died a few days beWhile the friend sleeps!-When falls the traitor's fore, and another shortly after, his triumph on the conquest blow? When are proud sceptres riven, This, with the preceding, and several of the following pieces, have appeared in the Edinburgh Magazine. of Macedon, when Perseus, king of that country, was led in chains. See the description given by Plutarch, in his life of An tony, of the supernatural sounds heard in the streets of Alex andria, the night before Antony's death. Bright 'midst its vineyards lay Joy was around it as the glowing sky, A cloud came o'er the face Of night, o'ershadowing space, Such things have been of yore, On the grape-clusters pour; And where the palms to spicy winds are waving, Turn we to other climes! Far in the Druid-Isle a feast was spread, Were chanted to the harp; and yellow mead But ere the giant-fane Have veiled the sword!-Red wines have sparkled From venomed goblets, and soft breezes passed, But pour not all your spirit in the song, SONG OF THE BATTLE OF MOR- "In the year 1315, Switzerland was invaded by Duke Leo pold of Austria, with a formidable army. It is well attested, that this prince repeatedly declared he would trample the audacious rustics under his feet;' and that he had procured a large stock of cordage, for the purpose of binding their chiefs, and putting them to death. "The 15th October, 1315, dawned. The sun darted its first rays on the shields and armour of the advancing host; and this being the first army ever known to have attempted the frontiers of the cantons, the Swiss viewed its long line with various emotions. Montfort de Tettnang led the cavalry into the narrow pass, and soon filled the whole space between the mountain (Mount Sattel) and the lake. The fifty men on the eminence (above Morgarten) raised a sudden shout, and rolled down heaps of rocks and stones among the crowded ranks. The confederates on the mountain, perceiving the impression made by this attack, rushed down in close array, and fell upon the flank of the disordered column. With massy clubs they dashed in pieces the armour of the enemy, and dealt their blows and thrusts with long pikes. The narrowness of the was defile admitted of no evolutions, and a slight frost having injured the road, the horses were impeded in all their motions; many leaped into the lake; all were startled; and at last the Cast its broad shadows on the robe of even, Flashed the keen Saxon dagger!-Blood Where late the mead-cup to the sun was gleam-whole column gave way, and fell suddenly back on the ining, And Britain's hearths were heaped that night vain. For they returned no more! fantry; and these last, as the nature of the country did not in allow them to open their files, were run over by the fugitives, and many of thein trampled to death. A general rout ensued, and Duke Leopold was, with much difficulty, rescued by a peasant, who led him to Winterthur, where the historian of the times saw him arrive in the evening, pale, sullen, and dis mayed."-Planta's History of the Helvetic Confederacy. They that went forth at morn, with reckless heart, And the red grapes clustering hung, And the bright spears and bucklers of the walls,THE wine-month shone in its golden prime, Fear ye the festal hour! Ay, tremble when the cup of joy o'erflows! But a deeper sound through the Switzer's clime, A sound, through vaulted cave, A sound, through echoing glen Like the hollow swell of a rushing wave; *Herculaneum, of which it is related, that all the inha- And a trumpet, pealing wild and far, bitants were assembled in the theatres, when the shower of 'Midst the ancient rocks was blown, ashes, which covered the city, descended. ↑ Stonehenge, said by some traditions to have been erected Till the Alps replied to that voice of war, to the memory of Ambrosius, an early British king; and by others, mentioned as a monumental record of the massacre of British chiefs here alluded to. With a thousand of their own. Wine-month, the German name for October. But a band, the noblest band of all, Through the rude Morgarten strait, The herdsman's arm is strong! The sun was reddening the clouds of morn When storms at distance brood. There was stillness, as of deep dead night, While the Switzers gazed on the gathering might On wound those columns bright But they looked not to the misty height The pass was filled with their serried power, And their steps had sounds like a thunder-shower There were prince and crested knight, And the mighty rocks came bounding down, With a joyous whirl from the summit thrown- ⚫ Hasli, a wild district in the canton of Berne, † Schreckhorn, the peak of terror, a mountain in the canton of Berne. Righi, a mountain in the canton of Schwytz. They came, like lauwine* hurled When the echoes shout through the snowy And the pines are borne away. The fir-woods crashed on the mountain-side, Like hunters of the deer, They stormed the narrow dell, Ask not!-the peasant at his cabin-door There mayst thou mark the boy, with earnest gaze, Wo to the victors and the vanquished! Wo! But mightier bands, that lay in ambush there, Burst on their flight-and hark! the deepening sound Of fierce pursuit !—still nearer and more near, The day is won;-they fall-disarmed they yield, Why pour ye thus from your deserted homes, Each tongue, each eye, infatuate hope confessing! Know ye not whence th' ill-omened herald comes, And dare ye dream he comes with words of blessing? -Brothers, by brothers slain, lie low and cold- I hear the voice of joy, th' exulting cry! - But, from the soaring Alps, the stranger's eye Haste! form your lines again, ye brave and true! Haste, haste! your triumphs and your joys sus pending! Th' invader comes; your banners raise anew, Oh! thou devoted land! that canst not rear Are these infatuate too? Oh! who hath known Well hath it marked him—and ordained the hour Are we not creatures of one hand divine? THE MEETING OF THE BARDS. WRITTEN FOR AN EISTEDDVOD, OR MEETING OF WELSH BARDS. Held in London, May 22d, 1822. 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 Llyware Hen. WHERE met our bards of old?-the glorious throng, They of the mountain and the battle-song? They met where woods made moan o'er warriors' graves, And where the torrent's rainbow spray was cast, In the sun's face, beneath the eye of light, Well might their lays be lofty!-soaring thought From Nature's presence tenfold grandeur caught: Well might bold Freedom's soul pervade the strains, Which startled eagles from their lone domains, Whence came the echoes to those numbers high? And from the watch-towers on the heights of snow, Thence, deeply mingling with the torrent's roar, 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 ancient British chiefs frequently harangued their The presiding bard stood on a large stone (Maen followers from small artificial mounts of turf.--See Pennant. Carnedd, a stone-barrow, or cairn. ↑ Cromlech, a Druidical monument, or altar. The word means a stone of covenant. |