XXVI. And wild and high the "Cameron's gathering" rose! Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes:- And (4) Evan's, (5) Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears! XXVII. And Ardennes (6) waves above them her green leaves, Ere evening to be trodden like the grass Which now beneath them, but above shall grow Of living valour, rolling on the foe And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low. XXVIII. Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife, The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent XXIX. Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine; Yet one I would select from that proud throng, Partly because they blend me with his line, And partly that I did his sire some wrong, And partly that bright names will hallow song; And his was of the bravest, and when shower d The death-bolts deadliest the thinn'd files along, Even where the thickest of war's tempest lower'd, They reach'd no nobler breast than thine, young, gallant Howard! XXX. There have been tears and breaking hearts for thee, [(7) I turn'd from all she brought to those she could not bring. XXXI. I turn'd to thee, to thousands, of whom each In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach The Archangel's trump, not Glory's, must awake The fever of vain longing, and the name So honour'd but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim. VOL. I. M XXXII. They mourn, but smile at length; and, smiling, mourn: The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn; Stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone; The day drags through tho' storms keep out the sun; And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on: XXXIII. Even as a broken mirror, which the glass The same, and still the more, the more it breaks; Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold. XXXIV. There is a very life in our despair, Which feeds these deadly branches; for it were Itself to Sorrow's most detested fruit, Like to the apples on the (8) Dead Sea's shore, Existence by enjoyment, and count o'er Such hours 'gainst years of life,—say, would he name threescore? XXXV. The Psalmist number'd out the years of man: Thou, who didst grudge him even that fleeting span, Millions of tongues record thee, and anew Their children's lips shall echo them, and say— "Here, where the sword united nations drew, "Our countrymen were warring on that day!" And this is much, and all which will not pass away. XXXVI. There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men, One moment of the mightiest, and again XXXVII. Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou! Who deem'd thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert. XXXVIII. Oh, more or less than man-in high or low, However deeply in men's spirits skill'd, Look through thine own, nor curb the lust of war, Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest star. XXXIX. Yet well thy soul hath brook'd the turning tide When the whole host of hatred stood hard by, To watch and mock thee shrinking, thou hast smiled With a sedate and all-enduring eye; When Fortune fled her spoil'd and favourite child, He stood unbow'd beneath the ills upon him piled. XL. Sager than in thy fortunes; for in them And spurn the instruments thou wert to use So hath it proved to thee, and all such lot who choose. |