Britannia needs no bulwark, No towers along the steep;
Her march is o'er the mountain waves Her home is on the deep.
With thunders from her native oak,
She quells the floods below,
As they roar on the shore,
When the stormy tempests blow:
When the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy tempests blow.
The meteor flag of England Shall yet terrific burn;
Till danger's troubled night depart, And the star of peace return.
Then, then, ye ocean-warriors! Our song and feast shall flow To the fame of your name,
When the storm has ceased to blow; When the fiery fight is heard no more, And the storm has ceased to blow.
On Linden, when the sun was low, All bloodless lay th' untrodden snow, And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.
But Linden saw another sight,
When the drum beat, at dead of night, Commanding fires of death to light The darkness of her scenery.
By torch and trumpet fast arrayed, Each horseman drew his battle-blade, And furious every charger neighed, To join the dreadful revelry.
Then shook the hills with thunder riven Then rushed the steed to battle driven, And louder than the bolts of heaven, Far flashed the red artillery.
But redder yet that light shall glow On Linden's hills of stainéd snow, And bloodier yet the torrent flow Of Iser, rolling rapidly.
"Tis morn, but scarce yon level sun Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun, Where furious Frank and fiery Hun Shout in their sulph'rous canopy.
The combat deepens. On, ye brave, Who rush to glory, or the grave! Wave, Munich! all thy banners wave, And charge with all thy chivalry!
Few, few, shall part where many meet! The snow shall be their winding-sheet, And every turf beneath their feet Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.
WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY, AND OTHER MODERN POETS.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1770-1850. (Manual, pp. 420–424.
294. THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY.
In that fair clime, the lonely herdsman, stretched On the soft grass, through half a summer's day, With music lulled his indolent repose:
And, in some fit of weariness, if he,
When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear A distant strain, far sweeter than the sounds Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched, Even from the blazing chariot of the sun, A beardless youth,' who touched a golden lute, And filled th' illumined groves with ravishment. The nightly hunter, lifting up his eyes Towards the crescent moon, with grateful heart Called on the lovely wanderer who bestowed That timely light, to share his joyous sport: And hence, a beaming goddess 2 with her nymphs, Across the lawn and through the darksome grove (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes,
By echo multiplied from rock or cave),
Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars
Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven,
When winds are blowing strong. The traveller slaked His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked
The Naiad.3. Sunbeams, upon distant hills Gliding apace, with shadows in their train,
Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly.
The Zephyrs, fanning, as they passed, their wings, Lacked not, for love, fair objects, whom they wooed With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque,
Naiads, the nymphs of the springs; Oreads, those of the mountains.
Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age, From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth, In the low vale, or on steep mountain-side: And sometimes intermixed with stirring horns Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard, These were the lurking Satyrs, a wild brood Of ga nesome deities; or Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god!
Five years have passed; five summers with the length Of five long winters; and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain springs With a sweet inland murmur. Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
Which on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion, and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage ground, these orchard tufts, Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits, Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves Among the woods and copses, nor disturb The wild green landscape. Once again I see These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke Sent up in silence from among the trees, With some uncertain notice, as might seem, Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, Or of some hermit's cave. where, by his fire, The hermit sits alone.
Though absent long, These forms of beauty have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, In hou s of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart, And passing even into my purer mind
1 This abbey was founded by the Cisteraian monks, in 1131. It is now a celebrated ruin, on the wes bank of the River Wye, which forms the boundary between the counties of Monmouth and Gloucester, England. It is about five miles above the junction of the Wye and Severn, and eighteen miles north of Bristol.
With tranquil restoration - feelings, too, Of unremembered pleasure; such, perhaps, As may have had no trivial influence On that best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust, To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood In which the burden of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world
Is lightened; that serene and blessed mood In which the affections gently lead us on, Until the breath of this corporeal frame, And even the motion of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body, and become a living soul; While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things.
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power To chasten and subdue. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean, and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains, and of all that we behold
From this green earth: of all the mighty world
Of eye and ear, both what they half create And what perceive; well pleased to recognize In nature, and the language of the sense, The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and sou' Of all my morai being.
If I were not thus taught, should I the more Sffer my genial spirits to decay:
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