Wizard. Lochiel, Lochiel, be ware of the day! For, dark and despairing, my sight I may seal, But man cannot cover what God would reveal: 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadow before. I tell thee, Culloden's dread echoes shall ring With the bloodhounds, that bark for thy fugitive king. Lo! anointed by Heaven with the vials of wrath, Behold; where he flies on his desolate path! Now, in darkness and billows, he sweeps from my sight: Rise! rise! ye wild tempests, and cover his flight! 'Tis finished. Their thunders are hushed on the moors; Culloden is lost, and my country deplores; But where is the iron-bound prisoner? Where? For the red eye of battle is shut in despair. Say, mounts he the ocean-wave, banished, forlorn, Like a limb from his country cast bleeding and torn? Ah, no! for a darker departure is near; The war-drum is muffled, and black is the bier; His death-bell is tolling; oh! mercy, dispel Yon sight, that it freezes my spirit to tell! Life flutters convulsed in his quivering limbs, And his blood-streaming nostril in agony swims. Accursed be the fagots that blaze at his feet, Where his heart shall be thrown, ere it ceases to beat, With the smoke of its ashes to poison the gale Lochiel.-Down, soothless insulter! I trust not the tale: Though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their gore, Like ocean-weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore, Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains, While the kindling of life in his bosom remains, Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe! And leaving in battle no blot on his name, Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame. BANNOCKBURN. ROBERT BRUCE'S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY. SCOTS, wha hae wi' Wallace bled; Now's the day, and now's the hour; Wha will be a traitor knave? Let him turn and flee! Wha for Scotland's king and law Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Freeman stand, or freeman fa'? Let him follow me! By oppression's woes and pains! But they shall be free! Lay the proud usurpers low! Let us do, or die! CROMWELL AND KING CHARLES. 'Tis madness to resist or blame As if his highest plot And Hampton shows what part He had of wiser art; Where, twining subtile fears with hope, SCOTLAND. I MIND it weel, in early date, When I was beardless, young, and blate, And first could thresh the barn; Or haud a yokin' at the pleugh; An' though forfoughten sair eneugh, Yet unco proud to learn! Even then, a wish (I mind its power), A wish that to my latest hour Shall strongly heave my breast That I for poor auld Scotland's sake Some usefu' plan or book could make, Or sing a sang at least. The rough burr-thistle spreading wide Then ceased-and all is wail, Outspoke the victor then, As he hailed them o'er the wave, "Ye are brothers! ye are men! And we conquer but to save: So peace instead of death let us bring. But yield, proud foe, thy fleet, Then Denmark blest our chief, As death withdrew his shades from the day; While the sun looked smiling bright Now joy, old England, raise! YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND. YE mariners of England! The battle and the breeze: Your glorious standard launch again, And sweep through the deep, The spirit of your fathers Britannia needs no bulwark, Her march is o'er the mountain waves, Her home is on the deep. With thunders from her native oak The meteor flag of England Till danger's troubled night depart, In both from age to age, thou didst rejoice, They were thy chosen music, Liberty! There came a tyrant, and with holy glee Thou foughtst against him, but hast vainly striven; Thou from thy Alpine holds at length art driven, Where not a torrent murmurs heard by thee. Of one deep bliss thine ear hath been bereft: Then cleave, O cleave to that which still is left; For, high-souled maid, what sorrow would it be That mountain floods should thunder as before, And ocean bellow from his rocky shore, And neither awful voice be heard by thee! WORDSWORTH. SONNET. ALAS! what boots the long, laborious quest Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill; Or pains abstruse, to elevate the will, And lead us on to that transcendent rest Where every passion shall the sway attest Of Reason, seated on her sovereign hill? What is it but a vain and curious skill, If sapient Germany must lie depressed Beneath the brutal sword? Her haughty schools Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow say, A few strong instincts and a few plain rules, Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought More for mankind at this unhappy day, Than all the pride of intellect and thought. WORDSWORTH. |