SONGS FROM THE BETROTHED Published in 1825. I 'SOLDIER, WAKE!' From Chapter xix. SOLDIER, wake! the day is peeping, Arm and up! the morning beam Poor hire repays the rustic's pain; II WOMAN'S FAITH From Chapter xx. WOMAN'S faith, and woman's trust: And more permanent, I ween, I have strained the spider's thread Again her word and truth she plight, III 'I ASKED OF MY HARP' From Chapter xxxi. A lay, of which we can offer only a few fragments, literally translated from the ancient language in which they were chanted, premising that they are in that excursive symbolical style of poetry, which Taliessin, Llewarch Hen, and other bards, bad derived perhaps from the time of the Druids.' I ASKED of my harp, 'Who hath injured thy chords?'' And she replied, The crooked finger, which I mocked in my tune.' -a blade A blade of silver may be bended of steel abideth: Kindness fadeth away, but vengeance endureth. The sweet taste of mead passeth from the lips, But they are long corroded by the juice of wormwood; The lamb is brought to the shambles, but the wolf rangeth the mountain; Kindness fadeth away, but vengeauce endureth. I asked the red-hot iron, when it glim mered on the anvil, 'Wherefore glowest thou longer than the fire-brand?' 'I was born in the dark mine, and the brand in the pleasant greenwood.' Kindness fadeth away, but vengeance endureth. I asked the green oak of the assembly, wherefore its boughs were dry and seared like the horns of the stag? For its stains and its rents she should prize Do not doubt I will save her from suffering it the more, and shame; GLEE FOR KING CHARLES BRING the bowl which you boast, 'Tis to him we love most, And to all who love him Brave gallants, stand up, And avaunt ye, base carles! Were there death in the cup, Here's a health to King Charles ! Though he wanders through dangers, Let such honors abound As the time can afford, The knee on the ground, And the hand on the sword; |