Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Light shining out of Darkness.

M. PARKER.

T. H. BAYLY.

COWPER.

Seas

Rough with black winds, and storms
Unwonted.

Book i. Ode 5. Translation of MILTON.

HORACE.

Her deck is crowded with despairing souls,
And in the hollow pauses of the storm
We hear their piercing cries.

Bertram.

C. MATURIN.

King Henry V., Acti. Sc. 2.

SHAKESPEARE.

No, here's to the pilot that weathered the storm.

The Pilot that weathered the Storm.

G. CANNING.

THE LOW COUNTRIES.

To men of other minds my fancy flies,
Embosomed in the deep where Holland lies.
Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad Ocean leans against the land,
And, sedulous to stop the coming tide,
Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride.
Onward methinks, and diligently slow,
The firm connected bulwark seems to grow,
Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar,
Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore.
While the pent Ocean, rising o'er the pile,
Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile;
The slow canal, the yellow-blossomed vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail,

Fierce o'er the wreck the whelming waters The crowded mart, the cultivated plain,

[blocks in formation]

A new creation rescued from his reign.

[blocks in formation]

POEMS OF ADVENTURE

AND RURAL SPORTS

O Victor Emmanuel the King, the sword be for thee, and the deed, And nought for the alien, next spring, rought for Hapsburg and Bourbon agreedy But for us, a great Italy freed, with a hero & head us,.. bur

to

King

Elizabeth Barrett Browning,

[blocks in formation]

"Man wants but little have below: "For wants that little. Long?

I is not with me exactly so:
But 'tis so, in the Sony.

My wants are many, and if tokl
Would muster many a forme:

And were each wish a mint of gold
I still should long for

[ocr errors]

John Quincy Adams.

Washington 21. August 1846

POEMS OF ADVENTURE AND RURAL SPORTS.

CHEVY-CHASE.

ADVENTURE.

[Percy, Earl of Northumberland, had vowed to hunt for three days in the Scottish border, without condescending to ask leave from Earl Douglas, who was either lord of the soil or lord warden of the Marches. This provoked the conflict which was celebrated in the old ballad of the "Hunting o' the Cheviot." The circumstances of the battle of Otterbourne (A. D 1388) are woven into the ballad, and the affairs of the two events are confounded. The ballad preserved in the Percy Reliques is probably as old as 1574. The one following is a modernized form, of the time of James I.]

GOD prosper long our noble king,

Our lives and safeties all;

A woful hunting once there did In Chevy-Chase befall.

To drive the deer with hound and horn
Earl Percy took his way;

The child may rue that is unborn
The hunting of that day.

The stout Earl of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish woods
Three summer days to take,

The chiefest harts in Chevy-Chase
To kill and bear away.
These tidings to Earl Douglas came,
In Scotland where he lay;

Who sent Earl Percy present word

He would prevent his sport. The English earl, not fearing that, Did to the woods resort,

With fifteen hundred bowmen bold,
All chosen men of might,
Who knew full well in time of need
To aim their shafts aright.

The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran
To chase the fallow deer;
On Monday they began to hunt,
When daylight did appear;

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

His host he parted had in three,

As leader ware and tried ;
And soon his spearmen on their foes
Bore down on every side.

Throughout the English archery
They dealt full many a wound;
But still our valiant Englishmen
All firmly kept their ground.

And throwing straight their bows away,
They grasped their swords so bright;
And now sharp blows, a heavy shower,
On shields and helmets light.

They closed full fast on every side,
No slackness there was found;
And many a gallant gentleman
Lay gasping on the ground.

In truth, it was a grief to see

How each one chose his spear,
And how the blood out of their breasts
Did gush like water clear.

At last these two stout earls did meet ;
Like captains of great might,
Like lions wode, they laid on lode,
And made a cruel fight.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« VorigeDoorgaan »