MY battle-vow! -- no minster walls Gave back the burning word, Nor cress nor shrine the low deep tone Of smothered vengeance heard: But the ashes of a ruined home Thrilled, as it sternly rose, With the mingling voice of blood that shook The midnight's dark repose. I breathed it not o'er kingly tombs, But where my children lay, And the startled vulture at my step Soared from their precious clay. I stood amidst my dead alone -- I kissed their lips -- I poured, In the strong silence of that hour, My spirit on my sword. The roof-tree fallen, the smouldering floor, The blackened threshold-stone, The bright hair torn, and soiled with blood, Whose fountain was my own; These, and the everlasting hills, Bore witness that wild night; Before them rose the avenger's soul, In crushed affection's might. The stars, the searching stars of heaven With keen looks would upbraid, If from my heart the fiery vow, Seared on it then, could fade. They have no cause! -- Go, ask the streams That by my path have swept, The red waves that unstained were borne -- How hath my faith been kept? And other eyes are on my soul, That never, never close, The sad, sweet glances of the lost -- They leave me no repose. Haunting my night-watch 'midst the rocks, And by the torrent's foam, Through the dark-rolling mists they shine, Full, full of love and home! Alas! the mountain eagle's heart, When wronged, may yet find rest; Scorning the place made desolate, He seeks another nest. But I -- your soft looks wake the thirst That wins no quenching rain; Ye drive me back, my beautiful! To the stormy fight again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BY THE PACIFIC by HERBERT BASHFORD MISGIVINGS (1860) by HERMAN MELVILLE RESOLUTION AND INDEPENDENCE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE EVERLASTING GOD by EDWARD HENRY BICKERSTETH A SONG OF APPLE-GATHERING by GORDON BOTTOMLEY THE POET AND THE FLY: 1 by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. LITTLE HEART by EDWARD CARPENTER A RANGER by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. THE AMERICAN BLACK (A STUDY IN RACE CONSCIOUSNESS) by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE |