Poems original and translated By John Herman Merivale ... A new and corrected edition with some additional pieces |
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TENTH CENTURY. |
 | Poems original and translated |  |
TENTH CENTURY.
In valour next his sire—this century beginsWith Edward, who from Ethelwald the crown contested wins;
By aid of Ethelflede, his martial sister, shields
From Britons and Northumbrian Danes fair Mercia's threaten'd fields,
And dies in Twenty-five. His son, tho' basely born,
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The Britons, Danes, and Scots, at Brunanburgh confounds,
And restless Cornishmen confines within the Tamar's bounds.
Edmund, the rightful heir, in Forty-one succeeds,
Who conquers British Cumberland, and by a robber bleeds.
Edred, in Forty-six, assumes the vacant helm—
But bold Saint Dunstan now appears, and rules both king and realm;
From youthful Edwy tears his consort and his throne,
And bids his brother Edgar seize the conquest not his own.
Edgar—the tool of priests—but amorous, brave, and free,
First fixes England's empery, majestic on the sea;
For justice well maintain'd, and peaceful arts renown'd,
The court with regal pomp he kept, the land with plenty crown'd.
Edward, the martyr named, his false step-mother kills
In Seventy-nine; and Ethelred the seat of empire fills;
The second Ethelred, in whose long, feeble reign,
The realm is ravaged by the Danes, and yields to conquering Sweyn.
| Poems original and translated | |