120 The Chieftain's gripe his throat compressed,
His knee was planted on his breast;
His clotted locks * he backward threw,
Across his brow his hand he drew,

From blood and mist* to clear his sight, 125 Then gleamed aloft* his dagger bright!— But hate and fury* ill supplied

The stream of life's exhausted tide,
And all too late the advantage came
To turn the odds of deadly game ;
130 For, while the dagger gleamed on high,
Reeled soul and sense, reeled brain and eye.
Down came the blow, but in the heath
The erring * blade found bloodless sheath!
The struggling foe may now unclasp
135 The fainting chief's relaxing* grasp
Unwounded from the dreadful close,
But breathless all, Fitz-James arose.

Clotted locks, his hair
was bedabbled with
blood.

Mist, Roderick's sight
was getting dim from
loss of blood.
Aloft, on high.

But hate, &c., hatred
and rage are now
vain, for Roderick
grows too weak from
the loss of blood to
take revenge.

Erring, straying from the mark.

Relaxing, loosening.

5

10

ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD.

*

Gray.

*

THE curfew tolls the knell of parting* day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods* his weary

way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering * landscape on the
sight,

And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning*
flight,

Curfew, the evening bell rung in England during Norman times

to warn the people to

put out all fires and Parting, departing. lights at eight o'clock.

untilled meadow.

Lea, grass-land, an

Plods, walks as if
very tired.

Glimmering, fading
away.
Droning, humming
like a bee.

And drowsy tinklings* lull the distant Drowsy tinklings, &c.,

folds ;

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower

*

the sound of bells tied round the necks

of some of the sheep.

The moping owl does to the moon complain Moping, dull, gloomy.
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

*

Beneath those rugged

shade,

*

elms, that yew-tree's

Where heaves the turf in many a moulder-
ing heap,

15 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet* sleep. lage.

sweet air of the morn

Breezy call, &c., fresh The breezy call* of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,

ing.

Clarion, a narrow-
tubed trumpet.
Horn, the hunter's
horn heard early in
the morning.

Ply, &c., attend to household duties.

Furrow, the trench made by the plough. Glebe, land for cultivating.

Jocund, cheerful, merry.

Team, two or more horses, or other beasts of burden, harnessed together.

Afield, on towards the field.

Destiny, our state of life.

Annals, the account

The cock's shrill clarion,* or the echoing horn,*
No more shall rouse them from their lowly 20
bed.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall
burn,

Or busy housewife ply* her evening care :
No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow* oft the stubborn glebe * has
broke;

[afield!

*

*

How jocund* did they drive their team
How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy
stroke!

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

Their homely joys, and destiny* obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals * of the poor.

of what takes place The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

from year to year.

Inevitable, sure to happen.

Impute, to blame. Anthem, a sacred song.

Storied urn, a vessel containing the ashes

of a dead person,

with the story of his
life written upon it.
Bust, a representa-
tion of the head and
shoulders in some
solid substance.
Provoke, here means
to call forth.
Pregnant, full of.
Celestial fire, the di-

vine spirit of poetry.
Rod of empire, the
sceptre, marking the
power given to sove-
reigns to rule
govern.
Ecstasy, great joy.
Lyre, a kind of harp.

or

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er

gave,

*

Await alike the inevitable hour:

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Nor you, ye proud, impute* to these the fault,
If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted
vault

25

30%

35

The pealing anthem * swells the note of praise. 40

*

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of
Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial

fire;

*

Hands that the rod of empire* might have
swayed,

Or waked to ecstasy * the living lyre.*

45

50

*

full.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Ample, large, wide,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er
unroll;

Chill Penury* repressed* their noble rage,
And froze the genial* current of the soul.

Full* many a gem, of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed * caves of ocean bear:
55 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

60

Spoils, things taken from an enemy, here means knowledge acquired through prede

cessors.

Penury, poverty. Repressed, stopped, checked.

Genial, gay, cheerful. Full, &c., very many. Unfathomed, unsounded, depth not known.

Some village Hampden,* that with dauntless Hampden (John)

breast

The little tyrant of his fields withstood; Some mute inglorious Milton,* here may rest,

lived in the reign of Charles I. He would not pay the tax of "ship money," and became one of the leaders of the insur

Some Cromwell,* guiltless of his country's rection.

blood.

Milton (John) was one the greatest English poets who ever

to com- lived.

The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their history in a nation's eyes,

*

65 Their lot forbade : nor circumscribed* alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ;

70

Forbade to wade through slaughter to
throne,

And shut the gates of Mercy on mankind

The struggling pangs of conscious truth
hide,

a

;

*

to

To quench the blushes of ingenuous* shame,
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

Far from the madding * crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray; 7 Along the cool sequestered * vale of life

86

They kept the noiseless tenor* of their way.

Yet even these bones from insult to protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth * rhymes and shapeless sculpture
decked,

Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Heath, uncultivated land.

brook.

Their name, their years, spelt by the un-
lettered* Muse,

The place of fame and elegy* supply;
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist * to die.
For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing, anxious being, e'er resigned;
Left the warm precincts* of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?

85

On some fond breast the parting * soul relies,
Some pious* drops the closing eye requires; 90
Even from the tomb the voice of Nature
cries,―

Even in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who, mindful of the unhonoured
dead,

Dost in these lines their artless* tale relate;
If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,

Some kindred spirit * shall inquire thy fate,

66

Haply* some hoary-headed swain * may say,
Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.*

"There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech,
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so
high,

His listless length at noontide would he
stretch,

And pore* upon the brook that babbles by.

95

100

"Hard by * yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, 105 Muttering his wayward fancies he would

rove;

Now drooping, woful, wan,* like one forlorn,* Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.

"One morn I missed him on the accustomed

hill,

Along the heath* and near his favourite 110
tree;

Rill, a small running Another came, nor yet beside the rill,*
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

*

"The next, with dirges * due, in sad array,
Slow through the church-way path we saw
him borne:

115 Approach and read (for thou canst read) the

120

Lay, the song or verse carved on the stone;

lay*
Graved on the stone beneath yon aged mscription.

*

thorn."

THE EPITAPH.*

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth,
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown;
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy * marked him for her own,
Large was his bounty,* and his soul sincere ;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send :
He gave to Misery (all he had), a tear;
He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished),
a friend.

*

125 No further seek his merits * to disclose,
Or draw his frailties* from their dread
abode,*

Graved, carved on stone.

nesses.
Dread

(There they alike in trembling hope repose), grave.
The bosom of his Father and his God.

abode, the

5

1Ο

LOVE OF COUNTRY.-Scott.

BREATHES there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,

"This is my own, my native land!"
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned,

From wandering on a foreign strand! *
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel-raptures swell:
High though his title, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,*
The wretch, concentred * all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,*
And, doubly dying, shall go down
15 To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.

Foreign strand, countries other than one's own native land,

Pelf, riches.

Concentred, &c., thinking of no one but himself, being selfish.

Renown, respect, honour, fame.