 | The Dawn in Britain |  |
Sails, in first moon of the returning year,
From sea of Severn, with Duneda's navy,
(Wherein sit thousand chosen warriors;)
Young valorous Kowain. Come then morning red,
Of the eighth day; now entering in Colne mouth,
Their long war-keels, Dumnonians row to land:
Whence hastily gone up, bands of glittering spears;
Fair Mersea isle those waste, and homesteads burn;
And, therein, every stranger woman-born,
Whomso they meet, slay; be he Gaul or Roman.
Some taken alive, (already dead for fear;)
They hanged, as public robbers, in green trees.
Smoke of that sea-road was, from their new walls,
Seen of the Claudian Colony, in Camulodunum!
From sea of Severn, with Duneda's navy,
(Wherein sit thousand chosen warriors;)
Young valorous Kowain. Come then morning red,
Of the eighth day; now entering in Colne mouth,
Their long war-keels, Dumnonians row to land:
Whence hastily gone up, bands of glittering spears;
Fair Mersea isle those waste, and homesteads burn;
And, therein, every stranger woman-born,
Whomso they meet, slay; be he Gaul or Roman.
Some taken alive, (already dead for fear;)
They hanged, as public robbers, in green trees.
Smoke of that sea-road was, from their new walls,
Seen of the Claudian Colony, in Camulodunum!
But lifting anchors, ere pursuit arrived,
Of Gaulish horse; those hoised to merry wind,
Broad sails, plough forth, Dumnonian twelve war-keels,
Heavy with spoils of Romans. Fallen that night,
They made again the land, furl in Stour Frith.
Of Gaulish horse; those hoised to merry wind,
Broad sails, plough forth, Dumnonian twelve war-keels,
Heavy with spoils of Romans. Fallen that night,
They made again the land, furl in Stour Frith.
130
At dawn, to make his name the more abhorred,
They steads burn of the people of Bericos;
And seeded fields o'errun, from shore, and waste.
But veering soon the wind, embarked Dumnonians,
Invoked their blue sea-gods, steer South, longs strand.
Next even, they sailing, under island Vectis,
Unlooked-for, in white moonshine, row to land;
And Belges' field burn, subject now to Romans.
There, having reaved much corn, they lade their ships.
They steads burn of the people of Bericos;
And seeded fields o'errun, from shore, and waste.
But veering soon the wind, embarked Dumnonians,
Invoked their blue sea-gods, steer South, longs strand.
Next even, they sailing, under island Vectis,
Unlooked-for, in white moonshine, row to land;
And Belges' field burn, subject now to Romans.
There, having reaved much corn, they lade their ships.
| The Dawn in Britain | |