Then rose the Bard, and smilingly unslung40
His harp of ivory sheen, from shoulders broad,
Kissing the hand that doom'd his life, he sprung
Light from the shatter'd wall,—and swiftly strode
Where, herdlike huddled in the central space,
Droop'd, in dull pause, the cowering populace.
There, in the midst he stood! The heavens were pale41
With the first stars, unseen amidst the glare
Cast from large pine-brands on the sullen mail
Of listless legions and the streaming hair
Of women, wailing for the absent dead,
Or bow'd o'er infant lips that moan'd for bread.
From out the illumed cathedral hollowly42
Swell'd, like a dirge, the hymn; and through the throng
Whose looks had lost all commerce with the sky,
With lifted rood the slow monks swept along,
And vanish'd hopeless; From those wrecks of man
Fled ev'n Religion: Then the Bard began.
Slow, pitying, soft it glides, the liquid lay,43
Sad with the burthen of the Singer's soul
Into the heart it coil'd its lulling way;
Wave upon wave the golden river stole:
Hush'd to his feet forgetful Famine crept,
And Woe, reviving, veil'd the eyes that wept.
Then stern, and harsh, clash'd the ascending strain,44
Telling of ills more dismal yet in store;
Rough with the iron of the grinding chain,
Dire with the curse of slavery evermore;
Wild shrieks from lips belov'd pale warriors hear,
Her child's last death-groan rends the mother's ear;
Then trembling hands instinctive griped the swords;45
And men unquiet sought each other's eyes;
Loud into pomp sonorous swell the chords,
Like linkèd legions march the melodies;
Till the full rapture swept the Bard along,
And o'er the listeners rush'd the storm of song!
And the Dead spoke! from cairns and kingly graves46
The Heroes call'd;—and Saints from earliest shrines;
And the Land spoke!—Mellifluous river-waves;
Dim forests awful with the roar of pines;
Mysterious caves from legion-haunted deeps;
And torrents flashing from untrodden steeps;—
The Land of Freedom call'd upon the Free!47
All Nature spoke; the clarions of the wind;
The organ swell of the majestic sea;
The choral stars! the Universal Mind
Spoke, like the voice from which the world began,
"No chain for Nature and the Soul of Man!"
Then loud through all, as if mankind's reply,48
Burst from the Bard the Cymrian battle hymn!
That song which swell'd the anthems of the sky,
The Alleluia of the Seraphim;
When Saints led on the Children of the Lord,
And smote the Heathen with the Angel's sword.[3]
As leaps the warfire on the beacon hills,49
Leapt in each heart the lofty flame divine;
As into sunlight flash the molten rills,
Flash'd the glad claymores,[4] lightening line on line;
From cloud to cloud as thunder speeds along,
From rank to rank rush'd forth the choral song.—