Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OWEN GLYNDWR'S WAR-SONG, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OWEN GLYNDWR'S WAR-SONG, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Saw ye the blazing star?
Last Line: Was glyndwr's path of light!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Comets; Owen Glyndwr (15th Century); Wales; Welshmen; Welshwomen


SAW ye the blazing star?
The heavens looked down on freedom's war,
And lit her torch on high!
Bright on the dragon crest
It tells that glory's wing shall rest,
When warriors meet to die!

Let earth's pale tyrants read despair
And vengeance in its flame;
Hail ye, my bards! the omen fair
Of conquest and of fame,
And swell the rushing mountain air
With songs of Glyndwr's name.

At the dead hour of night,
Mark ye how each majestic height
Burned in its awful beams?
Red shone the eternal snows,
And all the land, as bright it rose,
Was full of glorious dreams!

O eagles of the battle, rise!
The hope of Gwynedd wakes!
It is your banner in the skies
Through each dark cloud which breaks,
And mantles with triumphal dyes
Your thousand hills and lakes!

A sound is on the breeze,
A murmur as of swelling seas!
The Saxon on his way!
Lo! spear and shield and lance,
From Deva's waves with lightning glance,
Reflected to the day!

But who the torrent-wave compels
A conqueror's chain to bear?
Let those who wake the soul that dwells
On our free winds beware!
The greenest and the loveliest dells
May be the lion's lair!

Of us they told, the seers,
And monarch bards of elder years,
Who walked on earth as powers!
And in their burning strains,
A spell of might and mystery reigns,
To guard our mountain towers!

-- In Snowdon's caves a prophet lay:
Before his gifted sight,
The march of ages pasesd away
With hero-footsteps bright,
But proudest in that long array
Was Glyndwr's path of light!





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