ODE VI.

THE BARD.

PINDARIC *.

I. 1.

RUIN seize thee, ruthless King!

'Confusion on thy banners wait,

'Tho' fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing
'They mock the air with idle state.
'Helm, nor +Hauberk's twisted mail,

'Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail
To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,
'From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!'

* This 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.

† The Hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail, that sat close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion.

Such were the sounds, that o'er the crested pride
Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay,

As down the steep of * Snowdon's shaggy side
He wound with toilsome march his long array.
Stout +Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance:
To arms! cried Mortimer, and couch'd his quiv'ring
lance.

I. 2,

On a rock, whose haughty brow

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,

Robed in the sable garb of woe,

With haggard eyes the Poet stood;

(Loose his beard, and hoary hair

Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air)

* Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract which the Welch themselves call Craigian-eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, as far east as the river Conway. R. Hygden, speaking of the castle of Conway, built by King Edward the First, says, " Ad ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery;" and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283,)“ Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdonia "fecit erigi castrum forte."

+ Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward.

Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore.

They both were Lords-Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the King in this expedition,

And with a Master's hand, and Prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.

'Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave,

Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!

'O'er thee, oh King! their hundred arms they wave,

Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;

'Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,

To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.

I. 3.

• Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,

'That hush'd the stormy main:

'Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed:

'Mountains, ye mourn in vain,

Modred, whose magic song

'Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-top'd head.

* On dreary Arvon's shore they lie,

'Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale:

Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens sail;

The famish'd +Eagle screams, and passes by.

* The shores of Caernarvonshire opposite to the Isle of Anglesey,

+ Cambden and others observe, that eagles used annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as some think) were named by the Welch Craigian-eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called the eagle's nest. That bird is certainly no

'Dear lost companions of my tuneful art,
Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes,
'Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,

'Ye died amidst your dying country's cries-

No more I weep. They do not sleep.

'On yonder cliffs, a griesly band,

'I see them sit, they linger yet,

Avengers of their native land:

'With me in dreadful harmony they join,

'And *weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy

line.'

II. 1.

"Weave the warp, and weave the woof,

"The winding-sheet of Edward's race. "Give ample room, and verge enough "The characters of hell to trace.

"Mark the year, and mark the night,

"When Severn shall re-echo with affright

"The shrieks of death, thro' Berkley's roof that ring, "Shrieks of an agonizing King!

stranger to this island, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. can testify: it even has built its nest in the Peak of Derbyshire. [See Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.]

* See the Norwegian Ode, that follows.

+ Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley-Castle.

"She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,

"That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled Mate, "From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs "The scourge of Heav'n, "The-scourge of Heav'n, What Terrors round him

"wait!

"Amazement in his van, with Flight combin'd, "And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.

II. 2.

Mighty Victor, mighty Lord,

66 Low on his funeral couch he lies!

"No pitying heart, no eye, afford "A tear to grace his obsequies.

"Is the sable Warrior fled?

Thy son is gone. He rests among the Dead.

"The Swarm, that in thy noon-tide beam were born?

"Gone to salute the rising Morn.

"Fair laughs the Morn, and soft the Zephyr blows,

"While proudly riding o'er the azure realm "In gallant trim the gilded Vessel goes;

"Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;

* Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous Queen, + Triumphs of Edward the Third in France.

Death of that King, abandoned by his Children, and even robbed in his last moments by his Courtiers and his Mistress.

§ Edward, the Black Prince, dead sometime before his Father. || Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. See Froissard, and other contemporary Writers.