The poetical works of John Nicholson ... Carefully edited from the original editions, with additional notes and a sketch of his life and writings. By W. G. Hird |
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 | The poetical works of John Nicholson |  |
Could I but call some venerable shade,
Whose earthly part a thousand years has laid
Within the tomb, in silent, soft repose,
Perhaps it might such things as these disclose:
Where rolls the stream above yon sacred fane,
And where the hills, in Time's all-wasting reign,
Have changed their forms; while, struggling for its way,
The furious flood has torn a part away
Of yonder fields, which bear a castle's name,—
There once a castle stood, though lost to fame:
But, safely sheltered from the feudal rage,
It gained no place in the historian's page;
And as the greatest temples rise and fall,
So none can tell where stood its ancient hall;
Its Gothic arches and strong-built keep,
Within th' adjacent floods are buried deep;
The strong foundations of its lofty towers,
Crumbled to sand, and washed away with showers!
Whose earthly part a thousand years has laid
Within the tomb, in silent, soft repose,
Perhaps it might such things as these disclose:
Where rolls the stream above yon sacred fane,
And where the hills, in Time's all-wasting reign,
Have changed their forms; while, struggling for its way,
The furious flood has torn a part away
Of yonder fields, which bear a castle's name,—
There once a castle stood, though lost to fame:
But, safely sheltered from the feudal rage,
It gained no place in the historian's page;
And as the greatest temples rise and fall,
So none can tell where stood its ancient hall;
Its Gothic arches and strong-built keep,
Within th' adjacent floods are buried deep;
The strong foundations of its lofty towers,
Crumbled to sand, and washed away with showers!
| The poetical works of John Nicholson | |