With orient hues, unborrow'd of the Sun: Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, Beneath the Good how far---but far above the Great. 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 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. As down the steep of *Snowdon's shaggy side 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 Snowdoniæ "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, '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, 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, "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. |