X. THE TRIUMPH OF OWEN:

A FRAGMENT FROM THE WELSH.

ADVERTISEMENT.-Owen succeeded his father Griffin in the Principality of North Wales, A. D. 1120: this battle was near forty years afterwards.

OWEN's praise demands my song,
Owen swift, and Owen strong,
Fairest flower of Roderick's stem,
Gwyneth's shield and Britain's gem.
He nor heaps his brooded stores,
Nor on all profusely pours;
Lord of every regal art,
Liberal hand and open heart.

Big with hosts of mighty name,
Squadrons three against him came;
This the force of Eirin hiding;
Side by side as proudly riding
On her shadow long and gay
Lochlin 2 ploughs the watery way;
There the Norman sails afar
Catch the winds and join the war;
Black and huge, along they sweep,
Burthens of the angry deep.

Dauntless on his native sands
The Dragon son 3 of Mona stands ;
In glittering arms and glory dress'd,
High he rears his ruby crest;
There the thundering strokes begin,
There the press and there the din:

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1 'Gwyneth:' North Wales.—2 Lochlin:' Denmark.—3 ‘Dragon son:' the Red Dragon is the device of Cadwalladar, which all his descendants bore on their banners.

Talymalfra's rocky shore

Echoing to the battle's roar!
Check'd by the torrent-tide of blood,
Backward Meniai rolls his flood;
While, heap'd his master's feet around,
Prostrate warriors gnaw the ground.
Where his glowing eye-balls turn,
Thousand banners round him burn;
Where he points his purple spear,
Hasty, hasty rout is there;
Marking, with indignant eye,
Fear to stop and Shame to fly :
There Confusion, Terror's child,
Conflict fierce, and Ruin wild,
Agony, that pants for breath,
Despair and honourable Death.

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XI.-FOR MUSIC.1

I.

HENCE, avaunt! ('tis holy ground,)
Comus and his midnight crew,
And Ignorance, with looks profound,
And dreaming Sloth, of pallid hue,
Mad Sedition's cry profane,

Servitude that hugs her chain,

Nor in these consecrated bowers,

Let painted Flattery hide her serpent-train in flowers;

1 'Music:' performed in the Senate-house, Cambridge, July 1, 1769, at the installation of his Grace, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University.

CHORUS.

Nor Envy base, nor creeping Gain,
Dare the Muse's walk to stain,

While bright-eyed Science watches round :
Hence, away! 'tis holy ground.'

II.

From yonder realms of empyrean day

Bursts on my ear the indignant lay;

There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine,

The few whom Genius gave to shine

Through every unborn age and undiscover'd clime.
Rapt in celestial transport they,

Yet hither oft a glance from high

They send of tender sympathy,

To bless the place where on their opening soul
First the genuine ardour stole.

"Twas Milton struck the deep-toned shell,
And, as the choral warblings round him swell,
Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime,
And nods his hoary head, and listens to the rhyme.

III.

Ye brown o'er-arching groves!

That Contemplation loves,

Where willowy Camus lingers with delight;
Oft at the blush of dawn

I trod your level lawn,

Oft wooed the gleam of Cynthia, silver-bright,
In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly,

With Freedom by my side, and soft-eyed Melancholy.

IV.

But hark! the portals sound, and pacing forth,
With solemn steps and slow,

High potentates, and dames of royal birth,
And mitred fathers, in long orders go:
Great Edward,' with the Lilies on his brow
From haughty Gallia torn,

And sad Chatillon,2 on her bridal morn,

That wept her bleeding love, and princely Clare,3
And Anjou's heroine, and the paler Rose,5
The rival of her crown, and of her woes,

And either Henry there,

The murder'd saint, and the majestic lord
That broke the bonds of Rome,-
(Their tears, their little triumphs o'er,
Their human passions now no more,
Save Charity, that glows beyond the tomb,)
All that on Granta's fruitful plain
Rich streams of regal bounty pour'd,

And bade those awful fanes and turrets rise,
To hail their Fitzroy's festal morning come;
And thus they speak in soft accord

The liquid language of the skies:

V.

'What is grandeur, what is power? Heavier toil, superior pain,

1 'Great Edward.' Edward III., who added the Fleur-de-lis of France to the arms of England. He founded Trinity College.—2 Chatillon:' Mary de Valentia, Countess of Pembroke, daughter of Guy de Chatillon, Comte de St Paul, in France, who lost her husband on the day of his marriage. She was the foundress of Pembroke College or Hall, under the name of Aula Mariæ de Valentia..-3 Clare:' Elizabeth de Burg, Countess of Clare, was wife of John de Burg, son and heir of the Earl of Ulster, and daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, by Joan of Acres, daughter of Edward I.; hence the poet gives her the epithet of 'princely.' She founded Clare Hall. -4'Anjou's heroine: Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI., foundress of Queen's College. -5 Rose:' Elizabeth Widville, wife of Henry IV. She added to the foundation of Margaret of Anjou.—6 Either Henry:' Henry VI. and Henry VII., the former the founder of King's, the latter the greatest benefactor to Trinity College.

What the bright reward we gain?
The grateful memory of the good.
Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,

The bee's collected treasures sweet,

Sweet Music's melting fall, but sweeter yet
.The still small voice of Gratitude.'

VI.

Foremost, and leaning from her golden cloud,
The venerable Margaret1 see!

Welcome, my noble son!' she cries aloud,
To this thy kindred train, and me:

Pleased, in thy lineaments we trace
A Tudor's fire, a Beaufort's grace.
Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye,
The flower unheeded shall descry,
And bid it round Heaven's altars shed
The fragrance of its blushing head;
Shall raise from earth the latent gem
To glitter on the diadem.

VII.

Lo! Granta waits to lead her blooming band;
Not obvious, not obtrusive, she

No vulgar praise, no venal incense flings;
Nor dares with courtly tongue refined
Profane thy inborn royalty of mind:

She reveres herself and thee.

With modest pride, to grace thy youthful brow,
The laureate wreath 3 that Cecil wore she brings,

1Margaret:' Countess of Richmond and Derby, the mother of Henry VII., foundress of St John's and Christ's Colleges.-2 Tudor:' the Countess was a Beaufort, and married to a Tudor; hence the application of this line to the Duke of Grafton, who claimed descent from both these families.-3 Wreath: ' Lord Treasurer Burleigh was Chancellor of the University in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

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