Alfred An Heroic Poem, in Twenty-Four Books. By Joseph Cottle: 4th ed. |
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 | Alfred |  |
Ivar exclaim'd, O Saxon! didst thou ask,
‘The Danish wrong endured, the powerful cause
‘That urged us hither, bade us cross the seas?
‘Ask gasping Regner! ask our murder'd sire!
‘Ask the deep curses, and the fiery wrath
‘He breath'd at death, when to his country's gods
‘He look'd and cried, ‘To join your laughing halls,
‘Come I, bless'd spirits! Yet, on Saxon land
‘Let plagues alight! let Slaughter glut himself
‘With death and carnage.’ Now, thine own heart ask,
‘What Regner's sons might merit, if they fail'd
‘To waste this isle, and with their valiant arms,
‘Remorseless, scourge, thy hated race and thee!
‘Dear is revenge!’
‘The Danish wrong endured, the powerful cause
‘That urged us hither, bade us cross the seas?
‘Ask gasping Regner! ask our murder'd sire!
‘Ask the deep curses, and the fiery wrath
‘He breath'd at death, when to his country's gods
‘He look'd and cried, ‘To join your laughing halls,
‘Come I, bless'd spirits! Yet, on Saxon land
‘Let plagues alight! let Slaughter glut himself
‘With death and carnage.’ Now, thine own heart ask,
‘What Regner's sons might merit, if they fail'd
‘To waste this isle, and with their valiant arms,
‘Remorseless, scourge, thy hated race and thee!
‘Dear is revenge!’
| Alfred | |