His little fair page now follows alone, For strength and for courage trying! The king looked back at that faithful child; Wan was the face that answering smiled; They passed the drawbridge with clattering din, Then he dropped; and only the king rode in Where his rose of the isles lay dying! The king blew a blast on his bugle horn; No answer came; but faint and forlorn The castle portal stood grimly wide; The panting steed, with a drooping crest, The king returned from her chamber of rest, And, that dumb companion eying, The tears gushed forth which he strove to check; CAROLINE NORTON. HIGH-TIDE ON THE COAST OF LINCOLNSHIRE. THE old mayor climbed the belfry tower, Good ringers, pull your best," quoth hee. "Play uppe, play uppe, O Boston bells! Ply all your changes, all your swells! Play uppe The Brides of Enderby!" Men say it was a "stolen tyde," The Lord that sent it, he knows all, But in myne ears doth still abide The message that the bells let fall; And there was naught of strange, beside The flights of mews and peewits pied, By millions crouched on the old sea-wall. I sat and spun within the doore; Lay sinking in the barren skies; "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, From the meads where melick groweth, "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow! Come uppe, Jetty! rise and follow; From the clovers lift your head ! Come uppe, Whitefoot! come uppe, Lightfoot? If it be long-ay, long ago When I beginne to think howe long, Againe I hear the Lindis flow, Swift as an arrowe, sharpe and strong; And all the aire, it seemeth mee, Alle fresh the level pasture lay, And not a shadowe mote be seene, Save where, full fyve good miles away, The steeple towered from out the greene. And lo! the great bell farre and wide Was heard in all the country side That Saturday at eventide. The swannerds, where their sedges are, Then some looked uppe into the sky, And where the lordly steeple shows. They sayde, "And why should this thing be, "For evil news from Mablethorpe, They have not spared to wake the towne; I looked without, and lo! my sonne Came riding downe with might and main ; He raised a shout as he drew on, Till all the welkin rang again : "Elizabeth Elizabeth!" (A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.) "The olde sea-wall" (he cryed) "is downe! The rising tide comes on apace; And boats adrift in yonder towne Go sailing uppe the market-place!" He shook as one that looks on death: "God save you, mother!" straight he sayth; "Where is my wife, Elizabeth?" "Good sonne, where Lindis winds away With her two bairns I marked her long; And ere yon bells beganne to play, Afar I heard her milking-song." With that he cried and beat his breast; And rearing Lindis, backward pressed, Shook all her trembling bankes amaine; Then madly at the eygre's breast Flung uppe her weltering walls again. Upon the roofe we sate that night; I marked the lofty beacon light Stream from the church tower, red and high,A lurid mark, and dread to see; And awsome bells they were to mee, That in the dark rang Enderby. They rang the sailor lads to guide, From roofe to roofe who fearless rowed; And I, - my sonne was at my side, And yet the ruddy beacon glowed; And yet he moaned beneath his breath, "O, come in life, or come in death! O lost my love, Elizabeth!" There is a solitary tomb, with rankling weeds o'ergrown, A single palm bends mournfully beside the mouldering stone Amidst whose leaves the passing breeze with fitful gust and slow Seems sighing forth a feeble dirge for him who sleeps below. Beside, its sparkling drops of foam a desert fountain showers; And, floating calm, the lotus wreathes its red and scented flowers, Here lurks the mountain fox unseen beside the vulture's nest; And steals the wild hyena forth, in lone and silent quest. Is this deserted resting-place the couch of fallen might? And ends the path of glory thus, and fame's inspiring light? Chief of a progeny of kings renowned and feared afar, How is thy boasted name forgot, and dimmed thine honor's star! Approach, what saith the graven verse? "Alas for human pride! Dominion's envied gifts were mine, nor earth her praise denied. Thou traveller, if a suppliant's voice find echo in thy breast, O, envy not the little dust that hides my mortal rest!" HELVELLYN. ANONYMOUS. Remote from public road or dwelling, Thither the rainbow comes, the cloud, Nor far had gone before he found From those abrupt and perilous rocks On which the traveller passed this way. But hear a wonder, for whose sake A lasting monument of words This wonder merits well. The dog, which still was hovering nigh, Repeating the same timid cry, This dog had been through three months' space A dweller in that savage place. Yes, proof was plain, that, since the day When this ill-fated traveller died, The dog had watched about the spot, Or by his master's side. How nourished here through such long time WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. HELVELLYN. [In the spring of 1805 a young gentleman of talents, and of a most amiable disposition, perished by losing his way on the mountain Helvellyn. His remains were not discovered till three months af terwards, when they were found guarded by a faithful terrier, his constant attendant during frequent solitary rambles through the wilds of Cumberland and Westmoreland. I CLIMBED the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn, Lakes and mountains beneath me gleamed misty and wide: All was still, save, by fits, when the eagle was And more stately thy couch by this desert lake yelling, And starting around me the echoes replied. And Catchedicam its left verge was defending, Dark green was that spot mid the brown mountain heather, lying, Thy obsequies sung by the gray plover flying, SIR WALTER SCOTT. CŒUR DE LION AT THE BIER OF HIS [The body of Henry the Second lay in state in the abbey-church of Fontevraud, where it was visited by Richard Coeur de Lion, who Where the Pilgrim of Nature lay stretched in on beholding it, was struck with horror and remorse, and bitterly decay, But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, reproached himself for that rebellious conduct which had been the TORCHES were blazing clear, In the church of Fontevraud. Banners of battle o'er him hung, And warriors slept beneath, On the settled face of death Of earthly years to show, The marble floor was swept By many a long dark stole, As the kneeling priests, round him that slept, Through the stillness of the night, There was heard a heavy clang, As, by the torch's flame, A gleam of arms up the sweeping aisle He came with haughty look, But his proud heart through its breastplate shook When, wildered, he drops from some cliff huge He stood there still with a drooping brow, in stature, dam. It was Cœur de Lion gazed! |