IF many a noble monument is gone,
That said how glorious in her day she was,
There is a sacred place within her walls,
Sacred and silent, save when they that die,
Come there to rest, and they that live, to pray,
For then are voices heard, crying to God,
Where yet remain, apart from all things else,
Four, such as no where on the earth are seen
Assembled; and at even, when the sun
Sinks in the west, and in the east the moon
As slowly rises, her great round displaying
Over a city now so desolate
Such is the grandeur, such the solitude,
Such their dominion in that solemn hour,
We stand and gaze and wonder where we are,
In this world or another.
O THOU Sweet lark, that in the heaven so high
Twinkling thy wings dost sing so joyfully,
I watch the soaring with no mean delight;
And when at last I turn mine aching eye
That lags, how far below that lofty flight,
Still silently receive thy melody.
1 Viz. the Cathedral, Baptistery, Campanile or Leaning Tower, and the Campo Santo or ancient burial place; the walls of which are decorated with frescoes of the 14th and 15th centuries.
O thou sweet lark, that I had wings like thee!
Not for the joy it were in yon blue light
Upward to plunge, and from my heavenly height
Gaze on the creeping multitude below,
But that I soon would wing my eager flight
To that lov'd home where Fancy even now
Hath fled, and Hope looks onward through a tear,
Counting the weary hours that keep her here.
ALONE upon the leaping billows, lo!
What fearful image works its way? A ship!
Shapeless and wild *
Her sails dishevell'd, and her massy form
Disfigur'd, yet tremendously sublime:
Prowless and helmless through the waves she rocks,
And writhes, as if in agony! Like he,
Who to the last, amid o'erwhelming foes,
Sinks with a bloody struggle into death,
The vessel combats with the battling waves,
Then fiercely dives below! - the thunders roll
Her requiem, and whirlwinds howl for joy!
And where are they, who from the breezy deck
Beheld the sun in orient glory rise
Like a divinity, and breath'd a prayer
For the fresh promise of a placid sea!
Float they in lifeless masses through the deep?
Look!-where a lash of lightning stripes the sea,-
Like straw upon the wind, a bark is whirl'd
From wave to wave; within, a pale-fac'd crew
Sit dumb as phantoms; with their eyes bedimm'd,
Their locks all foamy, and their lips unclos'd;
And when the clouds unsheath their fires, against
The wizard glare their upturn'd faces gleam
In one despairing row! - Their doom is seal'd
Above!-Death howls in every wolfish blast,
And rides on each gigantic wave! the sea
Shall be their sepulchre, their coffins be
Her caves, until the summon'd ocean hear
The death-trump, and her bosom'd dead arise.
R. MONTGOMERY.
WHEN Coward Asia shook in trembling woe,
And bent appall'd before the Bactrian bow 1;
From the moist regions of the western star
The wand'ring hermit 2 wak'd the storm of war.
Their limbs all iron, and their souls all flame,
A countless host, the red-cross warriors came!
E'en hoary priests the sacred combat wage,
And cloth'd in steel the palsied arm of age;
While beardless youths and tender maids assume
The weighty morion and the glancing plume.
In bashful pride the warrior virgins wield
The ponderous falchion, and the sun-like shield,
And start to see their armour's iron gleam
Dance with blue lustre in Tabaria's 3 stream.
The civilised parts of Asia were at this time overrun by the Seljukian Turks, who had established themselves in Khorasan, (the ancient Bactria,) whence they extended their dominion over the Caliphat, from the Caspian Sea to Arabia Felix, made themselves masters of Bagdad (1055), and in 1065, took Jerusalem and expelled the Saracens from Palestine.
Council of Clermont, 1095. • Tabaria, a corruption of Tiberias, is the name used for the Sea of Galilee in the old romances.
The blood-red banners floating o'er their van,
All madly blithe the mingled myriads ran:
Impatient Death beheld his destin'd food,
And hov'ring vultures snuff'd the scent of blood.
Not such the numbers, nor the host so dread,
By northern Brenn1 or Scythian Timur 1 led,
Nor such the heart-inspiring zeal that bore
United Greece to Phrygia's reedy shore!
There Gaul's proud knights with boastful mien advance,
Form the long line 2, and shake the cornel3 lance;
Here, link'd with Thrace, in close battalions stand
Ausonia's sons, a soft inglorious band;
There the stern Norman joins the Austrian train,
And the dark tribes of late-reviving 5 Spain;
Here in black files, advancing firm and slow,
Victorious Albion twangs the deadly bow :-
Albion, still prompt the captive's wrong to aid,
And wield in freedom's cause the freeman's gene-
rous blade!
* The line (combat à la haye) according to Sir Walter Raleigh, was characteristic of French tactics; as the column (herse) was of the English. At Crecy, the English were drawn up thirty deep.
3 Cornus sanguinea, the dogwood or cornel tree, the wood of which was used for lances.
There were no Spaniards in the first Crusade, the kings of Castile and Aragon being engaged in a perpetual crusade at home against the infidels in Spain.
THE moon is up, and yet it is not night –
Sunset divides the sky with her a sea
Of glory streams along the Alpine height
Of blue Friuli's mountains; heaven is free
From clouds, but of all colours seems to be,
Melted to one vast Iris of the West,
Where the day joins the past eternity;
While, on the other hand, meek Dian's crest
Floats through the azure air—an island of the blest!
A single star is at her hand, and reigns
With her o'er half the lovely heaven; but still
Yon sunny sea heaves brightly, and remains
Roll'd o'er the peak of the far Rhætian 2 hill,
As Day and Night contending were, until
Nature reclaim'd her order :- gently flows
The deep-dyed Brenta 3, where their hues instil
The odorous purple1 of a new-born rose,
Which streams upon her stream, and glass'd within it glows,
Fill'd with the face of heaven, which, from afar Comes down upon the waters; all its hues, From the rich sunset to the rising star,
Their magical variety diffuse:
1 The most eastern province of Italy, forming that part of the Lombardo-Venetian territory called "Delegazione di Udine." Udina is the capital.
2 That chain of the Alps which extends from the sources of the Rhine to the valley of the Adige. Its length is about eighty miles, and the Splugen is one of its passes.
A river that, after passing by Bassano and Padua, falls into the Adriatic near Venice.
"The setting sun produced the richest variety of tints; among them was a lovely violet glow, rarely, if ever, seen in England." Dallaway's Travels.
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