CHANT OF THE BARDS BEFORE THEIR MASSACRE BY EDWARD I. *

RAISE ye the sword! let the death-stroke be given, Oh! swift may it fall as the lightning of Heaven! So shall our spirits be free as our strains,

The children of song may not languish in chains!

Have ye not trampled our country's bright crest?
Are heroes reposing in death on her breast?
Red with their blood do her mountain-streams flow,
And think ye that still we would linger below?

* This sanguinary deed is not attested by any historian of credit. And it deserves to be also noticed, that none of the bardic productions since the time of Edward make any allusion to such an event.-See the Cambro-Briton, Vol. I. p. 195.

Rest, ye brave dead! 'midst the hills of your sires, Oh! who would not slumber when freedom expires? Lonely and voiceless your halls must remain,

-The children of song may not breathe in the chain!

SABBATH SONNET.

Composed by Mrs HEMANS a few days before her death, and dictated to her Brother.

How many blessed groups this hour are bending Through England's primrose meadow paths their way Towards spire and tower, 'midst shadowy elms ascending,

Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallowed day. The Halls from old heroic ages grey

Pour their fair children forth; and hamlets low,

With whose thick orchard-blooms the soft winds play, Send out their inmates in a happy flow,

Like a freed vernal stream. I may not tread

With them those pathways,-to the feverish bed
Of sickness bound ;-yet, oh my God! I bless
Thy mercy, that with Sabbath peace hath filled
My chastened heart, and all its throbbings stilled
To one deep calm of lowliest thankfulness.

X

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY JOHN STARK, OLD ASSEMBLY CLOSE.

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