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