Some Poems

CONCLUSION

I

 
  “Who shall command Estrella’s mountain-tide
    Back to the source, when tempest-chafed, to hie?
  Who, when Gascogne’s vexed gulf is raging wide,
    Shall hush it as a nurse her infant’s cry?
  His magic power let such vain boaster try,
    And when the torrent shall his voice obey,
  And Biscay’s whirlwinds list his lullaby,
    Let him stand forth and bar mine eagles’ way,
And they shall heed his voice, and at his bidding stay.
 

II

 
  “Else ne’er to stoop, till high on Lisbon’s towers
    They close their wings, the symbol of our yoke,
  And their own sea hath whelmed yon red-cross powers!”
    Thus, on the summit of Alverca’s rock
  To Marshal, Duke, and Peer, Gaul’s Leader spoke.
    While downward on the land his legions press,
  Before them it was rich with vine and flock,
    And smiled like Eden in her summer dress; -
Behind their wasteful march a reeking wilderness.
 

III

 
  And shall the boastful Chief maintain his word,
    Though Heaven hath heard the wailings of the land,
  Though Lusitania whet her vengeful sword,
    Though Britons arm and WELLINGTON command!
  No! grim Busaco’s iron ridge shall stand
    An adamantine barrier to his force;
  And from its base shall wheel his shattered band,
    As from the unshaken rock the torrent hoarse
Bears off its broken waves, and seeks a devious course.
 

IV

 
  Yet not because Alcoba’s mountain-hawk
    Hath on his best and bravest made her food,
  In numbers confident, yon Chief shall baulk
    His Lord’s imperial thirst for spoil and blood:
  For full in view the promised conquest stood,
    And Lisbon’s matrons from their walls might sum
  The myriads that had half the world subdued,
    And hear the distant thunders of the drum,
That bids the bands of France to storm and havoc come.
 

V

 
  Four moons have heard these thunders idly rolled,
    Have seen these wistful myriads eye their prey,
  As famished wolves survey a guarded fold -
    But in the middle path a Lion lay!
  At length they move – but not to battle-fray,
    Nor blaze yon fires where meets the manly fight;
  Beacons of infamy, they light the way
    Where cowardice and cruelty unite
To damn with double shame their ignominious flight.
 

VI

 
  O triumph for the Fiends of Lust and Wrath!
    Ne’er to be told, yet ne’er to be forgot,
  What wanton horrors marked their wreckful path!
    The peasant butchered in his ruined cot,
  The hoary priest even at the altar shot,
    Childhood and age given o’er to sword and flame,
  Woman to infamy; – no crime forgot,
    By which inventive demons might proclaim
Immortal hate to man, and scorn of God’s great name!
 

VII

 
  The rudest sentinel, in Britain born,
    With horror paused to view the havoc done,
  Gave his poor crust to feed some wretch forlorn,
    Wiped his stern eye, then fiercer grasped his gun.
  Nor with less zeal shall Britain’s peaceful son
    Exult the debt of sympathy to pay;
  Riches nor poverty the tax shall shun,
    Nor prince nor peer, the wealthy nor the gay,
Nor the poor peasant’s mite, nor bard’s more worthless lay.
 

VIII

 
  But thou – unfoughten wilt thou yield to Fate,
    Minion of Fortune, now miscalled in vain!
  Can vantage-ground no confidence create,
    Marcella’s pass, nor Guarda’s mountain-chain?
  Vainglorious fugitive! yet turn again!
    Behold, where, named by some prophetic Seer,
  Flows Honour’s Fountain, ² as foredoomed the stain
    From thy dishonoured name and arms to clear -
Fallen Child of Fortune, turn, redeem her favour here!
 

IX

 
  Yet, ere thou turn’st, collect each distant aid;
    Those chief that never heard the lion roar!
  Within whose souls lives not a trace portrayed
    Of Talavera or Mondego’s shore!
  Marshal each band thou hast, and summon more;
    Of war’s fell stratagems exhaust the whole;
  Rank upon rank, squadron on squadron pour,
    Legion on legion on thy foeman roll,
And weary out his arm – thou canst not quell his soul.
 

X

 
  O vainly gleams with steel Agueda’s shore,
    Vainly thy squadrons hide Assuava’s plain,
  And front the flying thunders as they roar,
    With frantic charge and tenfold odds, in vain!
  And what avails thee that, for CAMERON slain,
    Wild from his plaided ranks the yell was given -
  Vengeance and grief gave mountain-range the rein,
    And, at the bloody spear-point headlong driven,
Thy Despot’s giant guards fled like the rack of heaven.
 

XI

 
  Go, baffled boaster! teach thy haughty mood
    To plead at thine imperious master’s throne,
  Say, thou hast left his legions in their blood,
    Deceived his hopes, and frustrated thine own;
  Say, that thine utmost skill and valour shown,
    By British skill and valour were outvied;
  Last say, thy conqueror was WELLINGTON!
    And if he chafe, be his own fortune tried -
God and our cause to friend, the venture we’ll abide.
 

XII

 
  But you, ye heroes of that well-fought day,
    How shall a bard, unknowing and unknown,
  His meed to each victorious leader pay,
    Or bind on every brow the laurels won?
  Yet fain my harp would wake its boldest tone,
    O’er the wide sea to hail CADOGAN brave;
  And he, perchance, the minstrel-note might own,
    Mindful of meeting brief that Fortune gave
’Mid yon far western isles that hear the Atlantic rave.
 

XIII

 
  Yes! hard the task, when Britons wield the sword,
    To give each Chief and every field its fame:
  Hark! Albuera thunders BERESFORD,
    And Red Barosa shouts for dauntless GRÆME!
  O for a verse of tumult and of flame,
    Bold as the bursting of their cannon sound,
  To bid the world re-echo to their fame!
    For never, upon gory battle-ground,
With conquest’s well-bought wreath were braver victors crowned!
 

XIV

 
  O who shall grudge him Albuera’s bays,
    Who brought a race regenerate to the field,
  Roused them to emulate their fathers’ praise,
    Tempered their headlong rage, their courage steeled,
  And raised fair Lusitania’s fallen shield,
    And gave new edge to Lusitania’s sword,
  And taught her sons forgotten arms to wield -
    Shivered my harp, and burst its every chord,
If it forget thy worth, victorious BERESFORD!
 

XV

 
  Not on that bloody field of battle won,
    Though Gaul’s proud legions rolled like mist away,
  Was half his self-devoted valour shown, -
    He gaged but life on that illustrious day;
  But when he toiled those squadrons to array,
    Who fought like Britons in the bloody game,
  Sharper than Polish pike or assagay,
    He braved the shafts of censure and of shame,
And, dearer far than life, he pledged a soldier’s fame.
 

XVI

 
  Nor be his praise o’erpast who strove to hide
    Beneath the warrior’s vest affection’s wound,
  Whose wish Heaven for his country’s weal denied;
    Danger and fate he sought, but glory found.
  From clime to clime, where’er war’s trumpets sound,
    The wanderer went; yet Caledonia! still
  Thine was his thought in march and tented ground;
    He dreamed ’mid Alpine cliffs of Athole’s hill,
And heard in Ebro’s roar his Lyndoch’s lovely rill.
 

XVII

 
  O hero of a race renowned of old,
    Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle-swell,
  Since first distinguished in the onset bold,
    Wild sounding when the Roman rampart fell!
  By Wallace’ side it rung the Southron’s knell,
    Alderne, Kilsythe, and Tibber owned its fame,
  Tummell’s rude pass can of its terrors tell,
    But ne’er from prouder field arose the name
Than when wild Ronda learned the conquering shout of GRÆME!
 

XVIII

 
  But all too long, through seas unknown and dark,
    (With Spenser’s parable I close my tale,)
  By shoal and rock hath steered my venturous bark,
    And landward now I drive before the gale.
  And now the blue and distant shore I hail,
    And nearer now I see the port expand,
  And now I gladly furl my weary sail,
    And, as the prow light touches on the strand,
I strike my red-cross flag and bind my skiff to land.
 

THE FIELD OF WATERLOO

I

 
Fair Brussels, thou art far behind,
Though, lingering on the morning wind,
  We yet may hear the hour
Pealed over orchard and canal,
With voice prolonged and measured fall,
  From proud St. Michael’s tower;
Thy wood, dark Soignies, holds us now,
Where the tall beeches’ glossy bough
  For many a league around,
With birch and darksome oak between,
Spreads deep and far a pathless screen,
  Of tangled forest ground.
Stems planted close by stems defy
The adventurous foot – the curious eye
  For access seeks in vain;
And the brown tapestry of leaves,
Strewed on the blighted ground, receives
  Nor sun, nor air, nor rain.
No opening glade dawns on our way,
No streamlet, glancing to the ray,
  Our woodland path has crossed;
And the straight causeway which we tread
Prolongs a line of dull arcade,
Unvarying through the unvaried shade
  Until in distance lost.
 

II

 
A brighter, livelier scene succeeds;
In groups the scattering wood recedes,
Hedge-rows, and huts, and sunny meads,
  And corn-fields glance between;
The peasant, at his labour blithe,
Plies the hooked staff and shortened scythe: -
  But when these ears were green,
Placed close within destruction’s scope,
Full little was that rustic’s hope
  Their ripening to have seen!
And, lo, a hamlet and its fane: -
Let not the gazer with disdain
  Their architecture view;
For yonder rude ungraceful shrine,
And disproportioned spire, are thine,
  Immortal WATERLOO!
 

III

 
Fear not the heat, though full and high
The sun has scorched the autumn sky,
And scarce a forest straggler now
To shade us spreads a greenwood bough;
These fields have seen a hotter day
Than e’er was fired by sunny ray,
Yet one mile on – yon shattered hedge
Crests the soft hill whose long smooth ridge
  Looks on the field below,
And sinks so gently on the dale
That not the folds of Beauty’s veil
  In easier curves can flow.
Brief space from thence, the ground again
Ascending slowly from the plain
  Forms an opposing screen,
Which, with its crest of upland ground,
Shuts the horizon all around.
  The softened vale between
Slopes smooth and fair for courser’s tread;
Not the most timid maid need dread
To give her snow-white palfrey head
  On that wide stubble-ground;
Nor wood, nor tree, nor bush are there,
Her course to intercept or scare,
  Nor fosse nor fence are found,
Save where, from out her shattered bowers,
Rise Hougomont’s dismantled towers.
 

IV

 
Now, see’st thou aught in this lone scene
Can tell of that which late hath been? -
  A stranger might reply,
“The bare extent of stubble-plain
Seems lately lightened of its grain;
And yonder sable tracks remain
Marks of the peasant’s ponderous wain,
  When harvest-home was nigh.
On these broad spots of trampled ground,
Perchance the rustics danced such round
  As Teniers loved to draw;
And where the earth seems scorched by flame,
To dress the homely feast they came,
And toiled the kerchiefed village dame
  Around her fire of straw.”
 

V

 
So deem’st thou – so each mortal deems,
Of that which is from that which seems: -
  But other harvest here
Than that which peasant’s scythe demands,
Was gathered in by sterner hands,
  With bayonet, blade, and spear.
No vulgar crop was theirs to reap,
No stinted harvest thin and cheap!
Heroes before each fatal sweep
  Fell thick as ripened grain;
And ere the darkening of the day,
Piled high as autumn shocks, there lay
The ghastly harvest of the fray,
  The corpses of the slain.
 

VI

 
Ay, look again – that line, so black
And trampled, marks the bivouac,
Yon deep-graved ruts the artillery’s track,
  So often lost and won;
And close beside, the hardened mud
Still shows where, fetlock-deep in blood,
The fierce dragoon, through battle’s flood,
  Dashed the hot war-horse on.
These spots of excavation tell
The ravage of the bursting shell -
And feel’st thou not the tainted steam,
That reeks against the sultry beam,
  From yonder trenchéd mound?
The pestilential fumes declare
That Carnage has replenished there
  Her garner-house profound.
 

VII

 
Far other harvest-home and feast,
Than claims the boor from scythe released,
  On these scorched fields were known!
Death hovered o’er the maddening rout,
And, in the thrilling battle-shout,
Sent for the bloody banquet out
  A summons of his own.
Through rolling smoke the Demon’s eye
Could well each destined guest espy,
Well could his ear in ecstasy
  Distinguish every tone
That filled the chorus of the fray -
From cannon-roar and trumpet-bray,
From charging squadrons’ wild hurra,
From the wild clang that marked their way, -
  Down to the dying groan,
And the last sob of life’s decay,
  When breath was all but flown.
 

VIII

 
Feast on, stern foe of mortal life,
Feast on! – but think not that a strife,
With such promiscuous carnage rife,
  Protracted space may last;
The deadly tug of war at length
Must limits find in human strength,
  And cease when these are past.
Vain hope! – that morn’s o’erclouded sun
Heard the wild shout of fight begun
  Ere he attained his height,
And through the war-smoke, volumed high,
Still peals that unremitted cry,
  Though now he stoops to night.
For ten long hours of doubt and dread,
Fresh succours from the extended head
Of either hill the contest fed;
  Still down the slope they drew,
The charge of columns pauséd not,
Nor ceased the storm of shell and shot;
  For all that war could do
Of skill and force was proved that day,
And turned not yet the doubtful fray
  On bloody Waterloo.
 

IX

 
Pale Brussels! then what thoughts were thine,
When ceaseless from the distant line
  Continued thunders came!
Each burgher held his breath, to hear
These forerunners of havoc near,
  Of rapine and of flame.
What ghastly sights were thine to meet,
When rolling through thy stately street,
The wounded showed their mangled plight
In token of the unfinished fight,
And from each anguish-laden wain
The blood-drops laid thy dust like rain!
How often in the distant drum
Heard’st thou the fell Invader come,
While Ruin, shouting to his band,
Shook high her torch and gory brand! -
Cheer thee, fair City!  From yon stand,
Impatient, still his outstretched hand
  Points to his prey in vain,
While maddening in his eager mood,
And all unwont to be withstood,
  He fires the fight again.
 

X

 
“On! On!” was still his stern exclaim;
“Confront the battery’s jaws of flame!
  Rush on the levelled gun!
My steel-clad cuirassiers, advance!
Each Hulan forward with his lance,
My Guard – my Chosen – charge for France,
  France and Napoleon!”
Loud answered their acclaiming shout,
Greeting the mandate which sent out
Their bravest and their best to dare
The fate their leader shunned to share.
But HE, his country’s sword and shield,
Still in the battle-front revealed,
Where danger fiercest swept the field,
  Came like a beam of light,
In action prompt, in sentence brief -
“Soldiers, stand firm!” exclaimed the Chief,
  “England shall tell the fight!”
 

XI

 
On came the whirlwind – like the last
But fiercest sweep of tempest-blast -
On came the whirlwind – steel-gleams broke
Like lightning through the rolling smoke;
  The war was waked anew,
Three hundred cannon-mouths roared loud,