THE KINGDOM OF EAST-ANGLIA.
Began 575.—Ended 793.—Included Cambridgeshire,
Suffolk, Norfolk, and the Isle of Ely.—Dunwich
was the Royal Residence.
THE KINGDOM OF EAST-ANGLIA.
Matter of fact is dull, when told at best,
Then how can coarsest poetry digest
Such names as Uffa, Earpwold, and a host
Of Egrics, Alduffs, Elfwolds; who but boast
Short usurpation, or sad length of feud,
With fate of friends and subjects' blood imbrued!
The sanction of the venerable Bede,
Who saw so many monarchs reign and bleed,
Pourtrays a cheerless picture of that time,
When crime expelled was but expelled by crime;
When chiefs, alternate doom'd to smile or groan,
Saw Anglia fall before the Mercian throne!
Yet here, 'mid deeds that sullied British earth,
Cambridge!
thy seat of learning first had birth
From Sigebert;—like the eastern star it rose,
To cheer the dim horizon;—Sigebert's name
Derives from hence more enviable fame,
Than from a thousand fields of slaughter'd foes.
