DANE'S DY KE. This remarkable and apparently natural fortification, is generally believed to be an artificial structure, and to have been the work of the Danes during the period in which that warlike people made frequent descents upon the eastern coast of England. Now, all is silent; they who stood And gazed upon these waves, A few proud names are left to teli And these hoar battlements record The labours of their day. And many flowers have sprung since then, To greet the summer breeze; And these old woods have seen the fall Of many stately trees; But still the forest-turf is dim With shade of leaf and bough; The saplings of that elder time, And the wild birds are singing sweet From early morn to eve, In each green bower, where blooming buds And martial music now no more From rock to rock is heard; No bright spears flash, by no fierce dart But thou, oh! Ocean old and hoar! Thy waves, so fetterless, roll on, Along the lonely strand; Time and decay have wrought strange change On nations proud and free; And thou-thou only art the same, Thou ever-sounding sea! |