Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50)

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Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) Page 158

by Homer


  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Lord Ullin’s Daughter

  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

  A CHIEFTAIN to the Highlands bound

  Cries ‘Boatman, do not tarry!

  And I’ll give thee a silver pound

  To row us o’er the ferry!’

  ‘Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle. 5

  This dark and stormy water?’

  ‘O I’m the chief of Ulva’s isle,

  And this, Lord Ullin’s daughter.

  ‘And fast before her father’s men

  Three days we’ve fled together, 10

  For should he find us in the glen,

  My blood would stain the heather.

  ‘His horsemen hard behind us ride —

  Should they our steps discover,

  Then who will cheer my bonny bride, 15

  When they have slain her lover?’

  Out spoke the hardy Highland wight,

  ‘I’ll go, my chief, I’m ready:

  It is not for your silver bright,

  But for your winsome lady: — 20

  ‘And by my word! the bonny bird

  In danger shall not tarry;

  So though the waves are raging white

  I’ll row you o’er the ferry.’

  By this the storm grew loud apace, 25

  The water-wraith was shrieking;

  And in the scowl of heaven each face

  Grew dark as they were speaking.

  But still as wilder blew the wind,

  And as the night grew drearer, 30

  Adown the glen rode arméd men,

  Their trampling sounded nearer.

  ‘O haste thee, haste!’ the lady cries,

  ‘Though tempests round us gather;

  I’ll meet the raging of the skies, 35

  But not an angry father.’

  The boat has left a stormy land,

  A stormy sea before her, —

  When, O! too strong for human hand

  The tempest gather’d o’er her. 40

  And still they row’d amidst the roar

  Of waters fast prevailing:

  Lord Ullin reach’d that fatal shore, —

  His wrath was changed to wailing.

  For, sore dismay’d, through storm and shade 45

  His child he did discover: —

  One lovely hand she stretch’d for aid,

  And one was round her lover.

  ‘Come back! come back!’ he cried in grief,

  ‘Across this stormy water: 50

  And I’ll forgive your Highland chief,

  My daughter! — O, my daughter!’

  ’Twas vain: the loud waves lash’d the shore,

  Return or aid preventing:

  The waters wild went o’er his child, 55

  And he was left lamenting.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The River of Life

  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

  THE MORE we live, more brief appear

  Our life’s succeeding stages:

  A day to childhood seems a year,

  And years like passing ages.

  The gladsome current of our youth, 5

  Ere passion yet disorders,

  Steals lingering like a river smooth

  Along its grassy borders.

  But as the care-worn cheeks grow wan,

  And sorrow’s shafts fly thicker, 10

  Ye Stars, that measure life to man,

  Why seem your courses quicker?

  When joys have lost their bloom and breath

  And life itself is vapid,

  Why, as we reach the Falls of Death, 15

  Feel we its tide more rapid?

  It may be strange — yet who would change

  Time’s course to slower speeding,

  When one by one our friends have gone

  And left our bosoms bleeding? 20

  Heaven gives our years of fading strength

  Indemnifying fleetness;

  And those of youth, a seeming length,

  Proportion’d to their sweetness.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  To the Evening Star

  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

  GEM of the crimson-colour’d Even,

  Companion of retiring day,

  Why at the closing gates of heaven,

  Beloved Star, dost thou delay?

  So fair thy pensile beauty burns 5

  When soft the tear of twilight flows;

  So due thy plighted love returns

  To chambers brighter than the rose;

  To Peace, to Pleasure, and to Love

  So kind a star thou seem’st to be, 10

  Sure some enamour’d orb above

  Descends and burns to meet with thee!

  Thine is the breathing, blushing hour

  When all unheavenly passions fly,

  Chased by the soul-subduing power 15

  Of Love’s delicious witchery.

  O! sacred to the fall of day

  Queen of propitious stars, appear,

  And early rise, and long delay,

  When Caroline herself is here! 20

  Shine on her chosen green resort

  Whose trees the sunward summit crown,

  And wanton flowers, that well may court

  An angel’s feet to tread them down: —

  Shine on her sweetly scented road 25

  Thou star of evening’s purple dome,

  That lead’st the nightingale abroad,

  And guid’st the pilgrim to his home.

  Shine where my charmer’s sweeter breath

  Embalms the soft exhaling dew, 30

  Where dying winds a sigh bequeath

  To kiss the cheek of rosy hue: —

  Where, winnow’d by the gentle air

  Her silken tresses darkly flow

  And fall upon her brow so fair, 35

  Like shadows on the mountain snow.

  Thus, ever thus, at day’s decline

  In converse sweet to wander far —

  O bring with thee my Caroline.

  And thou shalt be my Ruling Star! 40

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Maid of Neidpath

  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

  EARL MARCH look’d on his dying child,

  And, smit with grief to view her —

  The youth, he cried, whom I exiled

  Shall be restored to woo her.

  She’s at the window many an hour 5

  His coming to discover:

  And he look’d up to Ellen’s bower

  And she look’d on her lover —

  But ah! so pale, he knew her not,

  Though her smile on him was dwelling — 10

  And am I then forgot — forgot?

  It broke the heart of Ellen.

  In vain he weeps, in vain he sighs,

  Her cheek is cold as ashes;

  Nor love’s own kiss shall wake those eyes 15

  To lift their silken lashes.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Ye Mariners of England

  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

  YE Mariners of England

  That guard our native seas!

  Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,

  The battle and the breeze!

  Your glorious standard launch again 5

  To match another foe:

  And sweep through the deep,

  While the stormy winds do blow;

  While the battle rages loud and long

  And the stormy winds do blow. 10

  The spirits of your fathers

  Shall start from every wave —

  For the deck it was their field of fame,

  And Oce
an was their grave:

  Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell 15

  Your manly hearts shall glow,

  As ye sweep through the deep,

  While the stormy winds do blow;

  While the battle rages loud and long

  And the stormy winds do blow. 20

  Britannia needs no bulwarks,

  No towers along the steep;

  Her march is o’er the mountain-waves,

  Her home is on the deep.

  With thunders from her native oak 25

  She quells the floods below —

  As they roar on the shore,

  When the stormy winds do blow;

  When the battle rages loud and long,

  And the stormy winds do blow. 30

  The meteor flag of England

  Shall yet terrific burn;

  Till danger’s troubled night depart

  And the star of peace return.

  Then, then, ye ocean-warriors! 35

  Our song and feast shall flow

  To the fame of your name,

  When the storm has ceased to blow;

  When the fiery fight is heard no more,

  And the storm has ceased to blow. 40

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Battle of the Baltic

  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

  OF Nelson and the North

  Sing the glorious day’s renown,

  When to battle fierce came forth

  All the might of Denmark’s crown,

  And her arms along the deep proudly shone; 5

  By each gun the lighted brand

  In a bold determined hand,

  And the Prince of all the land

  Led them on.

  Like leviathans afloat 10

  Lay their bulwarks on the brine;

  While the sign of battle flew

  On the lofty British line:

  It was ten of April morn by the chime:

  As they drifted on their path 15

  There was silence deep as death;

  And the boldest held his breath

  For a time.

  But the might of England flush’d

  To anticipate the scene; 20

  And her van the fleeter rush’d

  O’er the deadly space between.

  ‘Hearts of oak!’ our captains cried, when each gun

  From its adamantine lips

  Spread a death-shade round the ships, 25

  Like the hurricane eclipse

  Of the sun.

  Again! again! again!

  And the havoc did not slack,

  Till a feeble cheer the Dane 30

  To our cheering sent us back; —

  Their shots along the deep slowly boom: —

  Then ceased — and all is wail,

  As they strike the shatter’d sail;

  Or in conflagration pale 35

  Light the gloom.

  Out spoke the victor then

  As he hail’d them o’er the wave,

  ‘Ye are brothers! ye are men!

  And we conquer but to save: — 40

  So peace instead of death let us bring:

  But yield, proud foe, thy fleet

  With the crews, at England’s feet,

  And make submission meet

  To our King.’ 45

  Then Denmark bless’d our chief

  That he gave her wounds repose;

  And the sounds of joy and grief

  From her people wildly rose,

  As death withdrew his shades from the day: 50

  While the sun look’d smiling bright

  O’er a wide and woeful sight,

  Where the fires of funeral light

  Died away.

  Now joy, old England, raise! 55

  For the tidings of thy might,

  By the festal cities’ blaze,

  Whilst the wine-cup shines in light;

  And yet amidst that joy and uproar,

  Let us think of them that sleep 60

  Full many a fathom deep

  By thy wild and stormy steep,

  Elsinore!

  Brave hearts! to Britain’s pride

  Once so faithful and so true, 65

  On the deck of fame that died,

  With the gallant good Riou:

  Soft sigh the winds of Heaven o’er their grave!

  While the billow mournful rolls

  And the mermaid’s song condoles 70

  Singing glory to the souls

  Of the brave!

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Hohenlinden

  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

  ON Linden, when the sun was low,

  All bloodless lay the untrodden snow;

  And dark as winter was the flow

  Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

  But Linden saw another sight, 5

  When the drum beat at dead of night

  Commanding fires of death to light

  The darkness of her scenery.

  By torch and trumpet fast array’d

  Each horseman drew his battle-blade, 10

  And furious every charger neigh’d

  To join the dreadful revelry.

  Then shook the hills with thunder riven;

  Then rush’d the steed, to battle driven;

  And louder than the bolts of Heaven 15

  Far flash’d the red artillery.

  But redder yet that light shall glow

  On Linden’s hills of staine´d snow;

  And bloodier yet the torrent flow

  Of Iser, rolling rapidly. 20

  ’Tis morn; but scarce yon revel sun

  Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun,

  Where furious Frank and fiery Hun

  Shout in their sulphurous canopy.

  The combat deepens. On, ye Brave 25

  Who rush to glory, or the grave!

  Wave, Munich, all thy banners wave,

  And charge with all thy chivalry!

  Few, few shall part, where many meet!

  The snow shall be their winding-sheet, 30

  And every turf beneath their feet

  Shall be a soldier’s sepulchre.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  J Campbell

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Freedom and Love

  J. Campbell

  HOW delicious is the winning

  Of a kiss at love’s beginning,

  When two mutual hearts are sighing

  For the knot there’s no untying!

  Yet remember, ‘midst your wooing 5

  Love has bliss, but Love has ruing;

  Other smiles may make you fickle,

  Tears for other charms may trickle.

  Love he comes and Love he tarries

  Just as fate or fancy carries; 10

  Longest stays, when sorest chidden;

  Laughs and flies, when press’d and bidden.

  Bind the sea to slumber stilly,

  Bind its odour to the lily,

  Bind the aspen ne’er to quiver, 15

  Then bind Love to last for ever.

  Love’s a fire that needs renewal

  Of fresh beauty for its fuel:

  Love’s wing moults when caged and captured,

  Only free, he soars enraptured. 20

  Can you keep the bee from ranging,

  Or the ringdove’s neck from changing?

  No! nor fetter’d Love from dying

  In the knot there’s no untying.

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Allan Cunningham

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  Hame, Hame, Hame

 
Allan Cunningham (1784–1842)

  HAME, hame, hame, O hame fain wad I be —

  O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countree!

  When the flower is i’ the bud and the leaf is on the tree,

  The larks shall sing me hame in my ain countree;

  Hame, hame, hame, O hame fain wad I be — 5

  O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countree!

  The green leaf o’ loyaltie’s beginning for to fa’,

  The bonnie White Rose it is withering an’ a’;

  But I’ll water ‘t wi’ the blude of usurping tyrannie,

  An’ green it will graw in my ain countree. 10

  O, there’s nocht now frae ruin my country can save,

  But the keys o’ kind heaven, to open the grave;

  That a’ the noble martyrs wha died for loyaltie

  May rise again an’ fight for their ain countree.

  The great now are gane, a’ wha ventured to save, 15

  The new grass is springing on the tap o’ their grave;

  But the sun through the mirk blinks blythe in my e’e,

  ‘I’ll shine on ye yet in your ain countree.’

  Hame, hame, hame, O hame fain wad I be —

  O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countree! 20

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea

 

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