"The Bard. A Pindaric Ode"

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	T	E	T/E		"The Bard. A Pindaric Ode"
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					The following Ode is founded on a Tradition current in Wales,
					that EDWARD the First, when he compleated the conquest of
					that country, ordered all the Bards, that fell into his hands,
					to be put to death.
					I. 1.
		E		1	`Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!
		E		2	Confusion on thy banners wait,
		E		3	Though fanned by Conquest's crimson wing
		E		4	They mock the air with idle state.
		E		5	Helm nor hauberk's twisted mail,
	T			6	Nor even thy virtues, tyrant, shall avail
		E		7	To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,
		E		8	From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!'
		E		9	Such were the sounds, that o'er the crested pride
				10	Of the first Edward scattered wild dismay,
		E		11	As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side
		E		12	He wound with toilsome march his long array.
		E		13	Stout Gloucester stood aghast in speechless trance:
		E		14	`To arms!' cried Mortimer, and couched his quivering lance.
					I. 2.
		E		15	On a rock, whose haughty brow
	T	E	T/E	16	Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
	T	E	T/E	17	Robed in the sable garb of woe,
	T	E	T/E	18	With haggard eyes the poet stood;
		E		19	(Loose his beard, and hoary hair
		E		20	Streamed, like a meteor, to the troubled air)
		E		21	And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,
				22	Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.
		E		23	`Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave,
				24	Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!
				25	O'er thee, oh king! their hundred arms they wave,
		E		26	Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;
		E		27	Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,
	T	E	T/E	28	To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.
					I. 3.
	T	E	T/E	29	`Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,
	T	E	T/E	30	That hushed the stormy main:
	T	E	T/E	31	Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed:
		E		32	Mountains, ye mourn in vain
		E		33	Modred, whose magic song
		E		34	Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topped head.
		E		35	On dreary Arvon's shore they lie,
		E		36	Smeared with gore, and ghastly pale:
		E		37	Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail;
		E		38	The famished eagle screams, and passes by.
		E		39	Dear lost companions of my tuneful art,
		E		40	Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes,
		E		41	Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,
		E		42	Ye died amidst your dying country's cries—
	T	E	T/E	43	No more I weep. They do not sleep.
		E		44	On yonder cliffs, a grisly band,
		E		45	I see them sit, they linger yet,
		E		46	Avengers of their native land:
		E		47	With me in dreadful harmony they join,
		E		48	And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.'
					II. 1.
		E		49	"Weave the warp, and weave the woof,
		E		50	The winding-sheet of Edward's race.
		E		51	Give ample room, and verge enough
		E		52	The characters of hell to trace.
		E		53	Mark the year and mark the night,
		E		54	When Severn shall re-echo with affright
		E		55	The shrieks of death, through Berkeley's roofs that ring,
		E		56	Shrieks of an agonising king!
		E		57	She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,
		E		58	That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate,
		E		59	From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs
		E		60	The scourge of heaven. What terrors round him wait!
		E		61	Amazement in his van, with Flight combined,
	T	E	T/E	62	And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.
					II. 2.
	T	E	T/E	63	"Mighty victor, mighty lord,
	T	E	T/E	64	Low on his funeral couch he lies!
	T	E	T/E	65	No pitying heart, no eye, afford
	T	E	T/E	66	A tear to grace his obsequies.
		E		67	Is the sable warrior fled?
				68	Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead.
	T	E	T/E	69	The swarm that in thy noon-tide beam were born?
	T	E	T/E	70	Gone to salute the rising morn.
	T	E	T/E	71	Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,
	T	E	T/E	72	While proudly riding o'er the azure realm
	T	E	T/E	73	In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes;
	T	E	T/E	74	Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;
	T	E	T/E	75	Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
	T	E	T/E	76	That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening-prey.
					II. 3.
		E		77	"Fill high the sparkling bowl,
		E		78	The rich repast prepare,
		E		79	Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast:
		E		80	Close by the regal chair
		E		81	Fell Thirst and Famine scowl
	T	E	T/E	82	A baleful smile upon their baffled guest.
		E		83	Heard ye the din of battle bray,
	T	E	T/E	84	Lance to lance, and horse to horse?
		E		85	Long years of havoc urge their destined course,
		E		86	And through the kindred squadrons mow their way.
	T	E	T/E	87	Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
	T	E	T/E	88	With many a foul and midnight murther fed,
				89	Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame,
	T	E	T/E	90	And spare the meek usurper's holy head.
		E		91	Above, below, the rose of snow,
		E		92	Twined with her blushing foe, we spread:
		E		93	The bristled Boar in infant-gore
		E		94	Wallows beneath the thorny shade.
				95	Now, brothers, bending o'er the accursed loom,
		E		96	Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.
					III. 1.
		E		97	"Edward, lo! to sudden fate
		E		98	(Weave we the woof. The thread is spun)
		E		99	Half of thy heart we consecrate.
		E		100	(The web is wove. The work is done.)"
	T	E	T/E	101	`Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn
	T	E	T/E	102	Leave me unblessed, unpitied, here to mourn:
	T	E	T/E	103	In yon bright track, that fires the western skies,
	T	E	T/E	104	They melt, they vanish from my eyes.
	T	E	T/E	105	But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height
	T	E	T/E	106	Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll?
		E		107	Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,
		E		108	Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!
	T	E	T/E	109	No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail.
	T	E	T/E	110	All-hail, ye genuine kings, Britannia's issue, hail!
					III. 2.
	T	E	T/E	111	`Girt with many a baron bold
	T	E	T/E	112	Sublime their starry fronts they rear;
		E		113	And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old
	T	E	T/E	114	In bearded majesty, appear.
		E		115	In the midst a form divine!
	T	E	T/E	116	Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line;
	T	E	T/E	117	Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face,
		E		118	Attempered sweet to virgin-grace.
	T	E	T/E	119	What strings symphonious tremble in the air,
	T	E	T/E	120	What strains of vocal transport round her play!
		E		121	Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear;
	T	E	T/E	122	They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.
	T	E	T/E	123	Bright Rapture calls, and soaring, as she sings,
		E		124	Waves in the eye of heaven her many-coloured wings.
					III. 3.
	T	E	T/E	125	`The verse adorn again
		E		126	Fierce war and faithful love,
		E		127	And truth severe, by fairy fiction dressed.
	T	E	T/E	128	In buskined measures move
		E		129	Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,
	T	E	T/E	130	With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.
		E		131	A voice, as of the cherub-choir,
		E		132	Gales from blooming Eden bear;
		E		133	And distant warblings lessen on my ear,
		E		134	That lost in long futurity expire.
		E		135	Fond impious man, think'st thou, yon sanguine cloud,
		E		136	Raised by thy breath, has quenched the orb of day?
		E		137	Tomorrow he repairs the golden flood,
		E		138	And warms the nations with redoubled ray.
		E		139	Enough for me: with joy I see
		E		140	The different doom our fates assign.
		E		141	Be thine despair and sceptered care;
	T	E	T/E	142	To triumph, and to die, are mine.'
		E		143	He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height
	T	E	T/E	144	Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.

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• [BrJ_1903] The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891].
• [CrJ_1948] Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].
• [EpW_1959] Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
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• [GoE_1884] The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i.
• [HeJ_1981] Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981.
• [LoR_1969] The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
• [P/W_1950] The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
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• [S/H_1966] The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
• [ToD_1922] Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].