Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A TALE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY; A FRAGMENT, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A TALE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY; A FRAGMENT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The moonbeam, quivering o'er the wave
Last Line: And one frail garland o'er the minstrel's bed!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Poitiers, Battle Of (1356)


The moonbeam, quivering o'er the wave,
Sleeps in pale gold on wood and hill,
The wild wind slumbers in its cave,
And heaven is cloudless -- earth is still!
The pile, that crowns you savage height
With battlements of Gothic might,
Rises in softer pomp arrayed,
Its massy towers half lost in shade,
Half touched with mellowing light!
The rays of night, the tints of time,
Soft-mingling on its dark-gray stone,
O'er its rude strength and mien sublime,
A placid smile have thrown;
And far beyond, where wild and high,
Bounding the pale blue summer sky,
A mountain vista meets the eye,
Its dark, luxuriant woods assume
A penciled shade, a softer gloom;
Its jutting cliffs have caught the light,
Its torrents glitter through the night,
While every cave and deep recess
Frowns in more shadowy awfulness.

Scarce moving on the glassy deep,
Yon gallant vessel seems to sleep,
But darting from its side,
How swiftly does its boat design
A slender, silvery, waving line
Of radiance o'er the tide!
No sound is on the summer seas,
But the low dashing of the oar,
And faintly sighs the midnight breeze
Through woods that fringe the rocky shore.
That boat has reached the silent bay,
The dashing oar has ceased to play,
The breeze has murmured and has died
In forest shades, on ocean's tide.
No step, no tone, no breath of sound
Disturbs the loneliness profound;
And midnight spreads o'er earth and main
A calm so holy and so deep,
That voice of mortal were profane,
To break on nature's sleep!
It is the hour for thought to soar,
High o'er the cloud of earthly woes;
For rapt devotion to adore,
For passion to repose;
And virtue to forget her tears,
In visions of sublimer spheres!
For oh! those transient gleams of heaven,
To calmer, purer spirits given,
Children of hallowed peace, are known
In solitude and shade alone!
Like flowers that shun the blaze of noon,
To blow beneath the midnight moon,
The garish world they will not bless,
But only live in loneliness!

Hark! did some note of plaintive swell
Melt on the stillness of the air?
Or was it fancy's powerful spell
That woke such sweetness there?
For wild and distant it arose,
Like sounds that bless the bard's repose,
When in lone wood or mossy cave
He dreams beside some fountain-wave,
And fairy worlds delight the eyes
Wearied with life's realties.
-- Was it illusion? -- yet again
Rises and falls the enchanted strain,
Mellow, and sweet, and faint,
As if some spirit's touch had given
The soul of sound to harp of heaven
To soothe a dying saint!

Is it the mermaid's distant shell,
Warbling beneath the moonlit wave?
-- Such witching tones might lure full well
The seaman to his grave!
Sure from no mortal touch ye rise,
Wild, soft, aerial melodies!
-- Is it the song of woodland-fay
From sparry grot, or haunted bower?
Hark! floating on, the magic lay
Draws near you ivied tower!
Now nearer still, the listening ear
May catch sweet harp-notes, faint, yet clear;
And accents low, as if in fear,
Thus murmur, half suppressed: --
"Awake! the moon is bright on high,
The sea is calm, the bark is nigh,
The world is hushed to rest!"
Then sinks the voice -- the strain is o'er,
Its last low cadence dies along the shore.

Fair Bertha hears the expected song,
Swift from her tower she glides along;
No echo to her tread awakes,
Her fairy step no slumber breaks,
And, in that hour of silence deep,
While all around the dews of sleep
O'erpower each sense, each eyelid steep,
Quick throbs her heart with hope and fear,
Her dark eye glistens with a tear.
Half wavering now, the varying cheek
And sudden pause her doubts bespeak,
The lip now flushed, now pale as death,
The trembling frame, the fluttering breath!
Oh! in that moment, o'er her soul,
What struggling passions claim control!
Fear, duty, love, in conflict high,
By turns have won the ascendancy;
And as, all tremulously bright,
Streams o'er her face the beam of night,
What thousand mixed emotions play
O'er that fair face, and melt away:
Like forms whose quick succession gleams
O'er fancy's rainbow-tinted dreams;
Like the swift glancing lights that rise
'Midst the wild cloud of stormy skies,
And traverse ocean o'er;
So in that full, impassioned eye
The changeful meanings rise and die,
Just seen -- and then no more!
But oh! too short that pause -- again
Thrills to her heart that witching strain: --
"Awake! the midnight moon is bright;
Awake! the moments wing their flight!
Haste! or they speed in vain!"

O, call of love! thy potent spell
O'er that weak heart prevails too well;
The "still small voice" is heard no more
That pleaded duty's cause before,
And fear is hushed, and doubt is gone,
And pride forgot, and reason flown!
Her cheek, whose color came and fled,
Resumes its warmest, brightest red,
Her step its quick elastic tread,
Her eye its beaming smile!
Through lonely court and silent hall
Flits her light shadow o'er the wall,
And still that low, harmonious call
Melts on her ear the while!
Though love's quick ear alone could tell
The words its accents faintly swell; --
"Awake, while yet the lingering night
And stars and seas befriend our flight,
O! haste, while all is well!

The halls, the courts, the gates, are past,
She gains the moonlit beach at last.
Who waits to guide her trembling feet?
Who flies the fugitive to greet?
He, to her youthful heart endeared
By all it e'er had hoped and feared,
Twined with each wish, with every thought,
Each day-dream fancy e'er had wrought,
Whose tints portray, with flattering skill,
What brighter worlds alone fulfil!
-- Alas! that aught so fair should fly,
Thy blighting wand, Reality!
A chieftain's mien her Osbart bore,
A pilgrim's lowly robes he wore,
Disguise that vainly strove to hide
Bearing and glance of martial pride;
For he in many a battle scene,
On many a rampart-breach had been;
Had sternly smiled at danger nigh,
Had seen the valiant bleed and die,
And proudly reared on hostile tower,
Midst falchion-clash, and arrowy shower,
Britannia's banner high.
And though some ancient feud had taught
His Bertha's sire to loathe his name,
More noble warrior never fought
For glory's prize, or England's fame.
And well his dark, commanding eye,
And form and step of stately grace,
Accorded with achievements high,
Soul of emprise and chivalry,
Bright name, and generous race!
His cheek, embrowned by many a sun,
Tells a proud tale of glory won,
Of vigil, march, and combat rude,
Valor, and toil, and fortitude!
E'en while youth's earliest blushes threw
Warm o'er that cheek their vivid hue,
His gallant soul, his stripling form,
Had braved the battle's rudest storm;
When England's conquering archers stood,
And dyed thy plain, Poitiers, with blood,
When shivered axe, and cloven shield,
And shattered helmet, strewed the field,
And France around her king in vain
Had marshalled valor's noblest train,
In that dread strife, his lightning eye
Had flashed with transport keen and high,
And 'midst the battle's wildest tide,
Throbbed his young heart with hope and pride.
Alike that fearless heart could brave,
Death on the war-field or the wave;
Alike in tournament or fight,
That ardent spirit found delight!
Yet oft, 'midst hostile scenes afar,
Bright o'er his soul a vision came,
Rising, like some benignant star,
On stormy seas, or plains of war,
To soothe, with hopes more dear than fame,
The heart that throbbed to Bertha's name!
And 'midst the wildest rage of fight,
And in the deepest calm of night,
To her his thoughts would wing their flight,
With fond devotion warm;
Oft would those glowing thoughts portray
Some home, from tumults far away,
Graced with that angel form!
And now his spirit fondly deems
Fulfilled its loveliest, dearest dreams!

Who, with pale cheek, and locks of snow,
In minstrel garb, attends the chief?
The moonbeam on his thoughtful brow
Reveals a shade of grief.
Sorrow and time have touched his face,
With mournful yet majestic grace,
Soft as the melancholy smile
Of sunset on some ruined pile!
-- It is the bard whose song had power
To lure the maiden from her tower;
The bard whose wild, inspiring lays,
E'en in gay childhood's earliest days,
First woke, in Osbert's kindling breast,
The flame that will not be represt,
The pulse that throbs for praise!
Those lays had banished from his eye,
The bright, soft tears of infancy,
Had soothed the boy to calm repose,
Had hushed his bosom's earliest woes;
And when the light of thought awoke,
When first young reason's dayspring broke,
More powerful still, they bade arise
His spirit's burning energies!
Then the bright dream of glory warmed,
Then the loud pealing war-song charmed,
The legends of each martial line,
The battle-tales of Palestine:
And oft, since then, his deeds had proved,
Themes of the lofty lays he loved!
Now, at triumphant's love's command,
Since Osbert leaves his native land,
Forsaking glory's high career,
For her, than glory far more dear;
Since hope's gay dream, and meteor ray,
To distant regions points his way,
That there Affection's hands may dress
A fairy bower for happiness;
That fond, devoted bard, though now
Time's wintry garland wreaths his brow,
Though quenched the sunbeam of his eye,
And fled his spirit's buoyancy,
And strength and enterprise are past,
Still follows constant to the last!

Though his sole wish was but to die
'Midst the calm scenes of days gone by;
And all that hallows and endears
The memory of departed years --
Sorrow, and joy, and time, have twined
To those loved scenes, his pensive mind;
Ah! what can tear the links apart,
That bind his chieftain to his heart?
What smile but his with joy can light
The eye obscured by age's night?
Last of a loved and honored line,
Last tie to earth in life's decline,
Till death its lingering spark shall dim,
That faithful eye must gaze on him!

Silent and swift, with footstep light,
Haste on those fugitives of night,
They reached the boat -- the rapid oar
Soon wafts them from the wooded shore,
The bark is gained -- a gallant few,
Vassals of Osbert, form its crew;
The pennant, in the moonlight beam
With soft suffusion glows;
From the white sail a silvery gleam
Falls on the wave's repose;
Long shadows undulating play,
From mast and streamer, o'er the bay;
But still so hushed the summer-air,
They tremble, 'midst that scene so fair,
Lest morn's first beam behold them there.
-- Wake, viewless wanderer! breeze of night,
From river-wave, or mountain-height,
Or dew-bright couch of moss and flowers,
By haunted spring, in forest bowers;
Or dost thou lurk in pearly cell,
In amber grot, where mermaids dwell,
And caverned gems their lustre throw
O'er the red sea-flowers' vivid glow?
Where treasures, not for mortal gaze,
In solitary splendor blaze;
And sounds, ne'er heard by mortal ear,
Swell through the deep's unfathomed sphere?
What grove of that mysterious world
Holds thy light wing in slumber furled?
Awake! o'er glittering seas to rove,
Awake! to guide the bark of love!

Swift fly the midnight hours, and soon
Shall fade the bright propitious moon;
Soon shall the waning stars grow pale,
E'en now -- but lo! the rustling sail
Swells to the new-sprung ocean gale!
The bark glides on -- their fears are o'er,
Recedes the bold romantic shore,
Its features mingling fast;
Gaze, Bertha, gaze, thy lingering eye
May still each lovely scene descry
Of years forever past!
There wave the woods, beneath whose shade,
With bounding step, thy childhood played;
'Midst ferny glades, and mossy lawns,
Free as their native birds and fawns;
Listening the sylvan sounds, that float
On each low breeze, 'midst dells remote;
The ringdove's deep, melodious moan,
The rustling deer in thickets lone;
The wild-bee's hum, the aspen's sigh,
The wood-stream's plaintive harmony.
Dear scenes of many a sportive hour,
There thy own mountains darkly tower!
'Midst their gray rocks no glen so rude,
But thou hast loved its solitude!
No path so wild but thou hast known,
And traced its rugged course alone!
The earliest wreath that bound thy hair,
Was twined of glowing heath-flowers there.
There, in the dayspring of thy years,
Undimmed by passions or by tears,
Oft, while thy bright, enraptured eye
Wandered o'er ocean, earth, or sky,
While the wild breeze that round thee blew,
Tinged thy warm cheek with richer hue;
Pure as the skies that o'er thy head
Their clear and cloudless azure spread;
Pure as that gale, whose light wing drew
Its freshness from the mountain dew;
Glowed thy young heart with feelings high,
A heaven of hallowed ecstasy!
Such days were thine! ere love had drawn
A cloud o'er that celestial dawn!
As the clear dews in morning's beam,
With soft reflected coloring stream,
Catch every tint of eastern gem,
To form the rose's diadem;
But vanish when the noontide hour
Glows fiercely on the shrinking flower;
Thus in thy soul each calm delight,
Like morn's first dewdrops, pure and bright,
Fled swift from passion's blighting fire,
Or lingered only to expire!

Spring, on thy native hills again,
Shall bid neglected wildflowers rise,
And call forth, in each grassy glen,
Her brightest emerald dyes!
There shall the lonely mountain-rose,
Wreath of the cliffs, again disclose;
'Midst rocky dells, each well-known stream,
Shall sparkle in the summer beam;
The birch, o'er precipice and cave,
Its feathery foliage still shall wave;
The ash 'midst rugged clefts unveil
Its coral clusters to the gale,
And autumn shed a warmer bloom
O'er the rich heath and glowing broom,
But thy light footstep there no more,
Each path, each dingle shall explore;
In vain may smile each green recess,
-- Who now shall pierce its loneliness?
The stream through shadowy glens may stray,
-- Who now shall trace its glistening way?
In solitude, in silence deep,
Shrined 'midst her rocks, shall echo sleep,
No lute's wild swell again shall rise,
To wake her mystic melodies.
All soft may blow the mountain air,
-- It will not wave thy graceful hair!
The mountain rose may bloom and die,
-- It will not meet thy smiling eye!
But like those scenes of vanished days,
Shall others ne'er delight;
Far lovelier lands shall meet thy gaze,
Yet seem not half so bright!
O'er the dim woodlands fading hue,
Still gleams you Gothic pile on high;
Gaze on, while yet 'tis thine to view
That home of infancy!
Heed not the night-dew's chilling power,
Heed not the sea-wind's coldest hour,
But pause, and linger on the deck,
Till of those towers no trace, no spec,
Is gleaming o'er the main;
For when the mist of morn shall rise,
Blending the sea, the shores, the skies,
That home, once vanished, from thine eyes,
Shall bless them ne'er again!
There the dark tales and songs of yore,
First with strange transport filled thy soul,
E'en while their fearful, mystic lore,
From thy warm cheek the life-bloom stole;
There, while thy father's raptured ear,
Dwelt fondly on a strain so dear,
And in his eye the trembling tear,
Revealed his spirit's trance;
How oft, those echoing halls along,
Thy thrilling voice has swelled the song,
Tradition wild of other days,
Or troubadour's heroic lays,
Or legend of romance!
Oh! many an hour has there been thine,
That memory's pencil oft shall dress
In softer shades, and tints that shine
In mellowed loveliness!
While thy sick heart, and fruitless tears,
Shall mourn, with deep and fond regret,
The sunshine of thine early years,
Scarce deemed so radiant -- till it set!
The cloudless peace, unprized till gone,
The bliss, till vanished, hardly known!

On rock and turret, wood and hill,
The fading moonbeams linger still;
Still, Bertha, gaze on yon gray tower,
At evening's last and sweetest hour,
While varying still, the western skies
Flushed the clear seas with rainbowdyes,
Whose warm suffusions glowed and passed,
Each richer, lovelier, than the last;
How oft, while gazing on the deep,
That seemed a heaven of peace to sleep,
As if its wave, so still, so fair,
More frowning mien might never wear,
The twilight calm of mental rest,
Would steal in silence o'er thy breast,
And wake that dear and balmy sigh,
That softly breathes the spirit's harmony!
-- Ah! ne'er again shall ours to thee be given,
Of joy on earth -- so near allied to Heaven!

Why starts the tear to Bertha's eye?
Is not her long-loved Osbert nigh?
Is there a grief his voice, his smile,
His words, are fruitless to beguile?
-- Oh! bitter to the youthful heart,
That scarce a pang, a care has known,
The hour when first from scenes we part,
Where life's bright spring has flown!
Forsaking, o'er the world to roam,
That little shrine of peace -- our home.
E'en if delighted fancy throw
O'er that cold world, her brightest glow,
Painting its untried paths with flowers
That will not live in earthly bowers
(Too frail, too exquisite, to bear
One breath of life's ungenial air);
E'en if such dreams of hope arise,
As Heaven alone can realize;
Cold were the breast that would not heave
One sigh, the home of youth to leave;
Stern were the heart that would not swell
To breathe life's saddest word -- farewell!
Though earth has many a deeper woe,
Though tears, more bitter far, must flow,
That hour, whate'er our future lot,
That first found grief, is ne'er forgot!

Such was the pang of Bertha's heart,
The thought, that bade the tear-drop start;
And Osbert by her side
Heard the deep sigh, whose bursting swell
Nature's fond struggle told too well;
And days of future bliss portrayed,
And love's own eloquence essayed,
To soothe his plighted bride!
Of bright Arcadian scenes he tells,
In that sweet land to which they fly;
The vine-clad rocks, the fragrant dells
Of blooming Italy.
For he had roved a pilgrim there,
And gazed on many a spot so fair,
It seemed like some enchanted grove,
Where only peace, and joy, and love,
Those exiles of the world, might rove
And breathe its heavenly air;
And, all unmixed with ruder tone,
Their "wood-notes wild" be heard alone!

Far from the frown of stern control
That vainly would subdue the soul,
There shall their long affianced hands,
Be joined in consecrated bands,
And in some rich, romantic vale,
Circled with heights of Alpine snow,
Where citron-woods enrich the gale,
And scented shrubs their balm exhale,
And flowering myrtles blow;
And 'midst the mulberry boughs on high,
Weaves the wild vine her tapestry:
On some bright streamlet's emerald side,
Where cedars wave, in graceful pride,
Bosomed in groves, their home shall rise,
A sheltered bower of Paradise!
Thus would the lover soothe to rest
With tales of hope her anxious breast;
Nor vain that dear enchanting lore,
Her soul's bright visions to restore,
And bid gay phantoms of delight
Float, in soft coloring, o'er her sight.
-- Oh! youth, sweet May-morn, fled so soon,
Far brighter than life's loveliest noon
How oft thy spirit's buoyant power
Will triumph, e'en in sorrow's hour
Prevailing o'er regret!
As rears its head the elastic flower
Though the dark tempest's recent shower
Hang on its petals yet!

Ah! not so soon can hope's gay smile
The aged bard to joy beguile;
Those silent years that steal away
The cheek's warm rose, the eye's bright ray,
Win from the mind a nobler prize,
E'en all its buoyant energies!
For him the April days are past,
When grief was but a fleeting cloud;
No transient shade will sorrow cast,
When age the spirit's might has bowed!

And, as he sees the land grow dim,
That native land, now lost to him,
Fixed are his eyes, and clasped his hands,
And long in speechless grief he stands.
So desolately calm his air,
He seems an image, wrought to bear
The stamp of deep, though hushed despair;
Motion and life no sign bespeaks,
Save that the night-breeze, o'er his cheeks,
Just waves his silvery hair!
Naught else could teach the eye to know
He was no sculptured form of woe!

Long gazing o'er the darkening flood,
Pale in that silent grief he stood;
Till the cold moon was waning fast,
And many a lovely star had died,
And the gray heavens deep shadows cast,
Far o'er the slumbering tide;
And robed in one dark solemn hue,
Arose the distant shore to view.
Then, starting from his trance of woe,
Tears, long suppressed, in freedom flow,
While thus his wild and plaintive strain,
Blends with the murmur of the main.

THE BARD'S FAREWELL.

Thou setting moon! when next thy rays
Are trembling on the shadowy deep,
The land, now fading from my gaze,
These eyes in vain shall weep;
And wander o'er the lonely sea,
And fix their tearful glance on thee,
On thee! whose light so softly gleams,
Through the green oaks that fringe my native streams.

But, 'midst those ancient groves, no more
Shall I thy quivering lustre hail,
Its plaintive strain my heart must pour,
To swell a foreign gale;
The rocks, the woods, whose echoes woke,
When its full tones their stillness broke,
Deserted now, shall hear alone,
The brook's wild voice, the wind's mysterious moan.

And oh! ye fair, forsaken halls,
Left by your lord to slow decay,
Soon shall the trophies on your walls
Be mouldering fast away!
There shall no choral songs resound,
There shall no festal board be crowned;
But ivy wreath the silent gate,
And all be hushed, and cold, and desolate.

No banner from the stately tower,
Shall spread its blazoned folds on high,
There the wild brier and summer flower
Unmarked, shall wave and die.
Home of the mighty! thou art lone,
The noonday of thy pride is gone,
And, 'midst thy solitude profound,
A step shall echo like unearthly sound!

From thy cold hearths no festal blaze
Shall fill the hall with ruddy light,
Nor welcome, with convivial rays,
Some pilgrim of the night;
But there shall grass luxuriant spread,
As o'er the dwellings of the dead;
And the deep swell of every blast,
Seem a wild dirge for years of grandeur past.

And I -- my joy of life is fled,
My spirit's power, my bosom's glow,
The raven locks that graced my head,
Wave in a wreath of snow!
And where the star of youth arose,
I deemed life's lingering ray should close,
And those loved trees my tomb o'ershade,
Beneath whose arching bowers my childhood played.

Vain dream; that tomb in distant earth
Shall rise, forsaken and forgot;
And thou, sweet land, that gavest me birth,
A grave must yield me not!
Yet, haply he for whom I leave
Thy shores, in life's dark wintereve,
When cold the hand, and closed the lays,
And mute the voice he loved to praise,
O'er the hushed harp one tear may shed,
And one frail garland o'er the minstrel's bed!





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