Tag Archives: war

William Blake, “A War Song to Englishmen”

WILLIAM BLAKE

“A War Song to Englishmen”

Prepare, prepare, the iron helm of war,
Bring forth the lots, cast in the spacious orb;
Th’ Angel of Fate turns them with mighty hands,
And casts them out upon the darken’d earth!
Prepare, prepare.                                  5

Prepare your hearts for Death’s cold hand! prepare
Your souls for flight, your bodies for the earth!
Prepare your arms for glorious victory!
Prepare your eyes to meet a holy God!
Prepare, prepare.                                 10

Whose fatal scroll is that?  Methinks ‘tis mine!
Why sinks my heart, why faultereth my tongue?
Had I three lives, I’d die in such a cause,
And rise, with ghosts, over the well-fought field.
Prepare, prepare.                                  15

The arrows of Almighty God are drawn!
Angels of Death stand in the low’ring heavens!
Thousands of souls must seek the realms of light,
And walk together on the clouds of heaven!
Prepare, prepare.                                   20

Soldiers, prepare! Our cause is Heaven’s cause;
Soldiers, prepare! Be worthy of our cause:
Prepare to meet our fathers in the sky:
Prepare, O troops, that are to fall to-day!
Prepare, prepare.                                    25

Alfred shall smile, and make his harp rejoice;
The Norman William, and the learned Clerk,
And Lion Heart, and black-brow’d Edward, with
His loyal queen shall rise, and welcome us!
Prepare, prepare.                                   30

NOTES:

26 Alfred Alfred the Great (849-899), King of Wessex, 871-899, “a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England. He prevented England from falling to the Danes” (Britannica).

27 William William the Conqueror (c. 1028-1087), the first Norman King of England, ruled as William I from 1066 (Britannica); Clerk Probably a reference to Lanfranc (c. 1005-1089), “archbishop of Canterbury and trusted councellor of William” (Britannica).

28 Lion Heart King Richard I (1157-1199) reigned from 1189 to 1199, known for his “prowess in the Third Crusade (1189-1192” (Britannica); Edward King Edward IV (1442-1483), reigned “from 1461-1470, and again from April 1471-1483).”  He was a leading orchestrator of the Wars of the Roses (Britannica).

29 His loyal queen King Edward IV secretly married Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492) in 1464.  She was a daughter of Lancastrians, which angered the Yorkists during the Wars of the Roses (Britannica).

SOURCE: Poetical Sketches (London 1783), pp. 58-59.  [Google Books]

Edited by Grae Zimmerman

William Collins, “Ode to Peace”

WILLIAM COLLINS
“Ode to Peace”

O Thou who badst thy turtles bear
Swift from his grasp thy golden hair,
And sought’st thy native skies;
When War, by vultures drawn from far,
To Britain bent his iron car,                                                       5
And bade his storms arise!

—–Tir’d of his rude tyrannic sway,
Our youth shall fix some festive day,
His sullen shrines to burn :—
But thou, who hear’st the turning spheres,                            10
What sounds may charm thy partial ears,
And gain thy blest return!

O Peace, thy injur’d robes up-bind!
O rise! and leave not one behind
Of all thy beamy train:                                                        15
The British Lion, Goddess sweet,
Lies stretch’d on earth to kiss thy feet,
And own thy holier reign.

Let others court thy transient smile;
But come to grace thy western isle,                                          20
By warlike Honour led;
And, while, around her ports rejoice,
While all her sons adore thy choice,
With him for ever wed!

NOTES:

1 badst “Commanded” (OED).

3 sought’st “To go in search or quest of” (OED).

4 War Reference to the second Jacobite rebellion (1745-1746), Charles Edward Stuart, the “Young Pretender,” was finally defeated in the Battle of Culloden, in northern Scotland, on 16 April 1746 (Britannica).

6 bade “Bid” (OED).

16 The British Lion “The lion as the national emblem of Great Britain; hence often used figuratively for the British nation (OED).

19 transient “Temporary; fleeting” (OED).

SOURCE: The Poetical Works of Mr. William Collins (Glasgow, 1777), pp. 48-49 [Google Books]
Edited by Montel Mosuela

Richard Cumberland, “Epilogue. [To The Battle of Hastings.] Spoken by Miss Younge”

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RICHARD CUMBERLAND

“Epilogue. [To The Battle of Hastings.] Spoken by Miss Younge”

 

From ancient Thespis to the present age,
The world have oft been term’d a public stage;
A thread-bare metaphor, which in its time
Hath patch’d much prose, and heel-piec’d many a rhime:
Ev’n the grave pulpit sometimes deigns to use                                        5
The emphatic terms of the proscribed muse;
Calls birth our entry, death our exit calls,
And at life’s close exclaims – the curtain falls;
And so concludes upon the drama’s plan,
That fretting, strutting, short-hour actor, man;                                        10
Are we all actors then? – yes, all from Adam.
And actresses? – I apprehend so, madam:
Some fill their cast with grace, others with none;
Some are shov’d off the stage, and some shov’d on;
Some good, some bad, still we all act a part,                                             15
Whilst we disguise the language of the heart.
Nature’s plain taste provides a simple treat,
But art, the cook, steps in and mars the meat.
The comic blade makes ridicule his test,
And on his tomb proclaims that life’s a jest.                                                20
The swaggering braggart, in true tragic’s cast,
Bellows blank verse and daggers to the last.
Whilst clubs of neutral petit maitres boast
A kind of opera company at most;
Whose dress, air, action, all is imitation,                                                      25
A poor, insipid, servile, French translation;
Whose tame dull scene glides uniform along,
In comi – farci – pastoral – sing – song –
‘Till all awaken’d by the rattling die,
Club wits, and make – a modern tragedy;                                                    30
A tragedy, alas! good friends, look round,
What have we left to tread but tragic ground?
Four authors leagu’d to shake the human soul,
Unsheath the dagger, and infuse the bowl;
At length descending to the least, and last,                                                 35
We hope the terror of the time is past;
Full fated now with battle, blood, and murder,
England is conquer’d – fate can reach no futher;
Bid then the weeping Pleiads dry their eyes,
And turn to happier scenes and brighter skies.                                          40

NOTES:

Title The Battle of Hastings A 1778 play by Richard Cumberland portraying the October 1066 battle over the disputed succession to the British throne after the death of King Edward in January 1066; Miss Younge Elizabeth Younge (1740-1797), a popular actress of the late-century period, best known for her Shakespearean roles.

1 Thespis “The traditional father of Greek tragedy” (OED).

6 proscribed muse That is, a forbidden poet; possibly alluding to Shakespeare, given the clear verbal echoes of Macbeth (V.ii.24-28) at line 10.

11 Adam First human in biblical account of the creation of world (OCB).

21 Braggart “One who brags too much” (OED).

33 Four authors Likely a reference to Harold Godwinson, Tostig Godwinson, Harald Hardrada, and William I, who all made claims to the throne after the death of King Edward in January 1066.

38 England is conquer’d Reference to the Norman victory in the Battle of Hastings, and subsequent rule of Britain by William I (c. 1028-1087), reigned from 1066.

39 Pleiades “In Greek mythology, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione” (OED).

SOURCE: The London Magazine (February 1778), pp. 89-90. [Google Books]

Edited by J. John Storost

William Hamilton, A Day Labourer, “Address to Humanity”

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WILLIAM HAMILTON, A  DAY LABOURER

“Address to Humanity”

 

What discordant strains I hear,
Rudely bursting on my ear!
Sure they speak the God of War,
Rolling in his iron car.
Thrills the sound in every vein;                                    5
Language pregnant, big with pain.
All the grief that mortals know,
All the anguish, all the woe,
Each deluded subject feels,
Echoes to his thundering wheels.                               10
Fairest daughter of the sky,
Dove-ey’d, soft HUMANITY!
Sweetest of celestial race,
Tears shall veil thy beauteous face;
Grief shall heave thy snowy breast,                            15
Grief that cannot be exprest:
Vain thy soft, persuasive power
In the passion-clouded hour.

Hear, ah hear the clarion’s note,
Louder through expansion float;                                 20
This declares the coming God;
Desolation marks his road;
Fury drives his foaming steeds,
Where the glowing battle bleeds,
Panting with disorder’d breath,                                    25
Breathing anguish, breathing death.

See the din and clank of arms
Wide diffuse the dread alarms;
Now they rally, now they fly;
Here they languish, there they die.                             30
Wider still the victor’s hand
Spreads destruction o’er the land.
Driven from their long-lov’d home,
See the wretched wanderers roam,
Despairing, o’er the ravag’d plains;                              35
Gleams the town behind in flames.
Night increasing horrors sheds,
Tempests rattle o’er their heads.
Now forlorn, expos’d they lie
Spent, in vain they wish to die.                                    40
Orphans importune for bread;
Rous’d at this, the waste they tread;
Long in vain till friendly Death
Seals their gladly-yielded breath.
Lo! the wretches that remain,                                      45
Still reserv’d for future pain;
Mangled limbs and fractur’d bones
Waste the tedious hours in groans.
Drop the veil—enough—no more—
Pity bleeds at every pore.                                             50

Goddess of the melting eye,
Cease the deep, heart-rending sigh;
See, Reflection lends her aid,
Wing’d with thought, in white array’d:
From her lily hand behold                                            55
Waves the sacred key of gold.
Truth proclaims, ’tis only this
Mortals bring to lasting bliss.

Oh, improve the happy hour,
Discord then shall feel thy power,                               60
And with thunder’s mimic sound
Cease to shake the vaulted ground;
Cease the wild alarm to keep,
Cease to feed the yawning deep;
Cease to stain with human gore                                   65
Where the roses blush’d before.
All shall own thy blissful sway,
And ev’n Bellona thy behests obey.

NOTES:

3 God of war…iron car A reference to the Roman god Mars, often depicted as riding in a chariot.

 19 clarion “A shrill-sounding trumpet with a narrow tube, formerly much used as a signal in war” (OED).

27 din “A loud noise; particularly a continued confused or resonant sound, which stuns or distresses the ear” (OED).

38 tempest “A violent storm of wind, usually accompanied by a downfall of rain, hail, or snow, or by thunder” (OED).

41 importune “To ask or request something of (a person) persistently or pressingly; to accost with questions or requests; to beg, beseech” (OED).

51 Goddess of the melting eye That is, “Humanity”; see lines 9-15 above.

 55 Lily hand White hand.

69 Bellona “Bellona, original name Duellona, in Roman religion, goddess of war…Sometimes known as the sister or wife of Mars, she has also been identified with his female cult partner Nerio. Her temple at Rome stood in the Campus Martius, outside the city’s gates near the Circus Flaminius and the temple of Apollo. There the Senate met to discuss generals’ claims to triumphs and to receive foreign ambassadors. In front of it was the columna bellica, where the ceremony of declaring war by the fetiales (a group of priestly officials) took place” (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine (July 1786), p. 601.

Edited by Juliet Paulson