ページの画像
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small]

SCREAMS Tound the Arch-druid's brow the seamew *—white)

As Menai's foam; and toward the mystic ring
Where Augurs stand, the Future questioning,

Slowly the cormorant aims her heavy flight,
Portending ruin to each baleful rite,

That, in the lapse of ages, hath crept o'er
Diluvian truths, and patriarchal lore.

Haughty the Bard ;—can these meek doctrines blight

His trausports? wither his heroic strains?

But all shall be fulfilled ;-the Julian spear

A way first opened; and, with Roman chains,
The tidings come of Jesus crucified;

They come-they spread-the weak, the suffering, hear;
Receive the faith, and in the hope abide.

This water-fowl was, among the Druids, an emblem of those traditiona connected with the deluge that made an important part of their mysteries. The Cormorant was a bird of bad omen.

IV.

1

DRUIDICAL EXCOMMUNICATION.

MERCY and Love have met thee on thy road,
Thou wretched Outcast, from the gift of fire
And food cut off, by sacerdotal ire,

From every sympathy that Man bestowed!
Yet shall it claim our reverence, that to God,
Ancient of days! that to the eternal Sire,
These jealous Ministers of law aspire,

As to the one sole fount whence wisdom flowed,
Justice, and order. Tremblingly escaped,

As if with prescience of the coming storm,
That intimation when the stars were shaped ;
And still, 'mid yon thick woods, the primal truth
Glimmers through many a superstitious form
That fills the Soul with unavailing ruth.

UNCERTAINTY.

1

DARKNESS surrounds us; seeking, wo are lost On Snowdon's wilds, amid Brigantian coves,

Or where the solitary shepherd roves ·

[ocr errors]

Along the plain of Sarum, by the ghost

Of Time and shadows of Tradition, crost;
And where the boatman of the Western Isles
Slackens his course-to mark those holy piles
Which yet survive on bleak Iona's coast.
Nor these, nor monuments of eldest fame,
Nor Taliesin's unforgotten lays,

[ocr errors]

Nor characters of Greek or Roman fame,
To an unquestionable Source have led ;
Enough-if eyes, that sought the fountain-head
In vain, upon the growing Rill may gaze.

VI.

PERSECUTION.

[ocr errors]

LAMENT! for Dioclesian's fiery sword

Works busy as the lightning; but instinct

With malico ne'er to deadliest weapon linked,

Which God's ethereal store-houses afford :
Against the Followers of the incarnate Lord
It rages; some are smitten in the field-

Some pierced to the heart through th' ineffectual shield
Of sacred home ;-with pomp are others gored

And dreadful respite. Thus was Alban tried,
England's first Martyr, whom no threats could shake;
Self-offered victim, for his friend he died,

And for the faith; nor shall his name forsake
That Hill, whose flowery platform seems to rise

By Nature decked for holiest sacrifice *.

• Soo Note.

VII.

RECOVERY.

As, when a storm hath ceased, the birds regain
Their cheerfulness, and busily re-trim
Their nests, or chant a gratulating hymn
To the blue ether and bespangled plain;
Even so, in many a re-constructed fane,
Have the survivors of this Storm renewed
Their holy rites with vocal gratitude:
And solemn ceremonials they ordain
To celebrate their great deliverance;'
Most feelingly instructed 'mid their fear-
That persecution, blind with rage extreme,
May not the less, through Heaven's mild countenance,
Even in her own despite, both feed and cheer;

For all things are less dreadful than they seem.

« 前へ次へ »