Alfred An Heroic Poem, in Twenty-Four Books. By Joseph Cottle: 4th ed. |
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 | Alfred |  |
Toward the Danes
Oddune beheld him pass! when, to himself,
Sorrowing he cried. ‘No more shall I behold
‘Thy face, oh king! Destruction thou hast sought,
‘And thou wilt find it! yet, thy fame shall reach
‘The distant time! For thee the enraptured bard
‘Shall strike the harp, and tell posterity
‘Of Alfred's worth, who, in these years forlorn,
‘When darkness reign'd, when superstition scowl'd,
‘Rose like a star miraculous, and spread
‘O'er earth, a light, which when this age hath pass'd,
‘Nay, age on age, down to the farthest time,
‘Shall still be visible!’
Oddune beheld him pass! when, to himself,
Sorrowing he cried. ‘No more shall I behold
‘Thy face, oh king! Destruction thou hast sought,
‘And thou wilt find it! yet, thy fame shall reach
‘The distant time! For thee the enraptured bard
‘Shall strike the harp, and tell posterity
‘Of Alfred's worth, who, in these years forlorn,
‘When darkness reign'd, when superstition scowl'd,
‘Rose like a star miraculous, and spread
‘O'er earth, a light, which when this age hath pass'd,
‘Nay, age on age, down to the farthest time,
‘Shall still be visible!’
| Alfred | |