Poems original and translated :: :: University of Virginia Library

And now I've brought my tale to royal Egbert down,
And happy England owns henceforth an undivided crown;
I too will seek to curb the licence of my strain,
And chronicle in order due the acts of every reign.
Egbert, in Twenty-seven, the Heptarchy unites,
And Cornishmen with Danes combined defeats on Hengsdown heights.
Next, Ethelwolf, his son, in Thirty-six succeeds,
Who with the Danes at Okeley fights, in Surry's pleasant meads,
And frees the invaded isle: then superstitious grown,
Grants of his lands a tenth to Rome, and leaves a crippled throne.
In Fifty-seven he yields to Ethelbald the west,
To Ethelbert the eastern parts, who soon the whole possess'd.
Their brother Ethelred in Sixty-six is crown'd,
Who from the Danes at Basingstoke receives his mortal wound,

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And leaves the land a prey to pirates fierce, agreed
With fickle Mercians and the tribes from Humber unto Tweed.
Alfred—surnamed the Great—the fourth and youngest son
Of Ethelwolf—survives the rest, and reigns in Seventy-one;
In many a hard-fought field defeats the bloody Danes,
Sets free the land, rebuilds its towns, and slighted law maintains:
Yet not at once he rose to glory's dizzy height,
From whence so many soar to fall to lower depths of night.
With painful steps ascending,—beset by doubt and dread—
Now wandering o'er the pathless down, now housed in peasant shed,
A name at length he gains, the Saviour of the land,
Fairer than conquest e'er bestow'd, or fortune can command.