 | Historical Odes and Other Poems |  |
I. INTRODUCTION.
Brothers; we met around a father's grave
A few swift years ago: the earth we clave
As breathless with our loss as we had been
With triumphs, when upon a hundred plains
We followed him, where flashed the steel more keen,
The battle spread in redder stains.
A few swift years ago: the earth we clave
As breathless with our loss as we had been
With triumphs, when upon a hundred plains
We followed him, where flashed the steel more keen,
The battle spread in redder stains.
Then looked we back upon his life, that road
Of victory, secure and long and broad,
With patience paved and virtue, Roman way,
Grand march of life heroic, which he drew,
His children paced; it leads from far Assaye,
And thence returns to Waterloo.
Of victory, secure and long and broad,
With patience paved and virtue, Roman way,
Grand march of life heroic, which he drew,
His children paced; it leads from far Assaye,
And thence returns to Waterloo.
2
Peace was his end; 'twas well; he wrought for peace
That iron road: his war made war to cease.
No other hand could stay the reign of blood,
The Fury Revolution, who had come
Of ancient tyranny, the monstrous brood
That leaped with groaning from the womb.
That iron road: his war made war to cease.
No other hand could stay the reign of blood,
The Fury Revolution, who had come
Of ancient tyranny, the monstrous brood
That leaped with groaning from the womb.
Think, brothers, living in a peaceful time
Of all the ravage, all the public crime,
The fields they fought, when earth was heaped with slain,
And mourned to be one open burial-place;
The fleets they filled, whose relics strewed the main;
Yearned Ocean o'er the human race.
Of all the ravage, all the public crime,
The fields they fought, when earth was heaped with slain,
And mourned to be one open burial-place;
The fleets they filled, whose relics strewed the main;
Yearned Ocean o'er the human race.
The lust, the rage, the blood, the agony;
The horror-stricken nations dismally
Labouring out they knew not what: the end
Which comes not yet, O brothers! now was come
The Fury Revolution, child of fiend,
That leaped with groaning from the womb.
The horror-stricken nations dismally
Labouring out they knew not what: the end
Which comes not yet, O brothers! now was come
The Fury Revolution, child of fiend,
That leaped with groaning from the womb.
She came; her soul despair, her body death:
The systems shrivelled, as she drew her breath;
Dagons before her, headless, handless, fell;
The Cæsars' empire withered at her frown;
Then she allied her with the infidel,
And ancient right was smitten down.
The systems shrivelled, as she drew her breath;
Dagons before her, headless, handless, fell;
The Cæsars' empire withered at her frown;
Then she allied her with the infidel,
And ancient right was smitten down.
3
Blind, self-tormenting, raging, fiend of Dante,
In force of furious scope, in vision scanty,
She struck at friends as foes, but most abhorred
The homes of freedom on the hills and seas;
Heroic Reding fell beneath her sword,
And England watched her on the breeze.
In force of furious scope, in vision scanty,
She struck at friends as foes, but most abhorred
The homes of freedom on the hills and seas;
Heroic Reding fell beneath her sword,
And England watched her on the breeze.
Republics round her she affiliated;
Then gave her chieftains kingdoms reinstated:
She came in anarchy, and she became
A despotism so dreadly centralized,
That later tyranny directs her aim
Backward: no more can be devised.
Then gave her chieftains kingdoms reinstated:
She came in anarchy, and she became
A despotism so dreadly centralized,
That later tyranny directs her aim
Backward: no more can be devised.
She came: La Vendée sank in mitraillades;
The Loire, the Seine, were sickened with noyades:
Then coil o'er coil, she stretched in dragon might,
Till half the continent was made her lair;
Her eagle plumes waved shadows black as night,
Her dragon whorls did crush and tear.
The Loire, the Seine, were sickened with noyades:
Then coil o'er coil, she stretched in dragon might,
Till half the continent was made her lair;
Her eagle plumes waved shadows black as night,
Her dragon whorls did crush and tear.
She came with thunderous march of vertebrate
Procession; fenced in iron, grinding weight
Of cannon; rank by rank of men who wound
O'er mountains, undulated over plains,
Successive, ceaseless; blood her mornings crowned,
Her dews of night were bloody rains.
Procession; fenced in iron, grinding weight
Of cannon; rank by rank of men who wound
O'er mountains, undulated over plains,
Successive, ceaseless; blood her mornings crowned,
Her dews of night were bloody rains.
4
Then battle grew a fiend, and monstrous Death
Exulted by sweet river and wild heath;
A shameless leper grinning at his sores;
He bathed in Danube, Scheldt, and Rhine, and Po,
He yelled with joy in burning Moscow's roars,
He rolled himself in Eylau's snow.
Exulted by sweet river and wild heath;
A shameless leper grinning at his sores;
He bathed in Danube, Scheldt, and Rhine, and Po,
He yelled with joy in burning Moscow's roars,
He rolled himself in Eylau's snow.
He sowed the dragon's teeth; the brood that sprung
He did conscribe, when they were over-young,
Into his hated service, forced to war
Ere truly they had left their mother earth:
Nature sufficed not; every natal star
Poured bloody runes upon its birth.
He did conscribe, when they were over-young,
Into his hated service, forced to war
Ere truly they had left their mother earth:
Nature sufficed not; every natal star
Poured bloody runes upon its birth.
Then rose the nations maddened with their wrong:
The German brothers sang the people's song;
Then Hofer fell, and from his fall the brand
Passed westward, southward; in the Pyrenees
His Alpine echoes rang; the Spanish land
Rose like a lion from its knees.
The German brothers sang the people's song;
Then Hofer fell, and from his fall the brand
Passed westward, southward; in the Pyrenees
His Alpine echoes rang; the Spanish land
Rose like a lion from its knees.
Rose lion-like; but fell beneath the blows
Of myriad hunters; legions of fierce foes
Ravaged and slew from iron shore to shore:
Fell vengeful Saragossa—all in vain—
Gerona sank beside her: it was o'er;
The new Saguntum bled again.
Of myriad hunters; legions of fierce foes
Ravaged and slew from iron shore to shore:
Fell vengeful Saragossa—all in vain—
Gerona sank beside her: it was o'er;
The new Saguntum bled again.
5
Then, like the angel of the sea and land,
Rose England for the struggling right to stand,
Resolved that now her arms should flash anew
In battle on the land as on the main;
Resolved to efface the failures hitherto—
Toulon, Dunkirk, and Walcheren,—
Rose England for the struggling right to stand,
Resolved that now her arms should flash anew
In battle on the land as on the main;
Resolved to efface the failures hitherto—
Toulon, Dunkirk, and Walcheren,—
And to outshine Corunna's setting sun.
And it was e'en thy hand, O Wellington,
Should raise our standard where it gleamed of yore
Upon the crest of wildest battle-wave:
An ancient right that triple cross upbore
The agonizing world to save.
And it was e'en thy hand, O Wellington,
Should raise our standard where it gleamed of yore
Upon the crest of wildest battle-wave:
An ancient right that triple cross upbore
The agonizing world to save.
And England owned herself in thee: her staid
And speechless courage into virtue made,
Her patience into faith, which only sees
The spreading splendours breaking through the clouds,
And builds up peace from thousand victories,
And glory from a million shrouds.
And speechless courage into virtue made,
Her patience into faith, which only sees
The spreading splendours breaking through the clouds,
And builds up peace from thousand victories,
And glory from a million shrouds.
Oh, mighty worker, mighty watcher! who
Remained save thee, save thine what work to do?
Nelson was gone, and Pitt had followed him;
Their work was done, yet still the strife increased,
The agony, the rending limb by limb,
The cruel demon at his feast.
Remained save thee, save thine what work to do?
Nelson was gone, and Pitt had followed him;
Their work was done, yet still the strife increased,
The agony, the rending limb by limb,
The cruel demon at his feast.
6
Footfall by footfall, line by line advanced
Thy liberation, thought on thought enhanced
Thy purpose; over armèd heads of chiefs
Till then unmatched, and launched like thunderbolts
By the gigantic grasper of king-fiefs—
Massenas, Marmonts, Soults—
Thy liberation, thought on thought enhanced
Thy purpose; over armèd heads of chiefs
Till then unmatched, and launched like thunderbolts
By the gigantic grasper of king-fiefs—
Massenas, Marmonts, Soults—
Thy triumph lay, until the lord of all
With his full might met thine. His Satan fall
Made earth a heaven, and set thy glory o'er
Death's reach; thy glory to efface, the fount
Of time must backward to its sources pour,
The sum of years the heavens remount.
With his full might met thine. His Satan fall
Made earth a heaven, and set thy glory o'er
Death's reach; thy glory to efface, the fount
Of time must backward to its sources pour,
The sum of years the heavens remount.
| Historical Odes and Other Poems | |