915 The greedy spirit of consuming flame 921 925 When tempest and whirlwind o'erwhelm the earth, And rocks are riven by the roaring blast. 930 935 The smoke-dark flame o'er the sinful shall roll, Houses fed by springs of water. This passage, and the reference to the hot baths in lines 34-35 support the view that the city was Bath, where the ruins of Roman baths may still be seen. How oft through long seasons I suffered and strove, 5 The flower of the doughty fallen, the proud ones fair to the eye. War took off some in death, and one did a strong bird bear Over the deep; and one—his bones did the grey Abiding within my breast How I sailed among sorrows The wild rise of the waves, Knows not he who finds happiest How I lived through long winter On the icy-cold ocean, Cut off from dear kindred, Hail flew in hard showers, But the wrath of the waters, Alas for the strength of the prince! for the time hath passed away The icy-cold way; 75 At times the swan's song; Is hid 'neath the shadow of night, as it never had been at all. In the scream of the gannet I sought for my joy, 35 Behind the dear and doughty there standeth now a wall, In the moan of the sea-whelp A wall that is wondrous high, and with wondrous snake-work wrought. The strength of the spears hath fordone the earls and hath made them naught, The weapons greedy of slaughter, and she, the mighty Wyrd; For laughter of men, In the song of the sea-mew For drinking of mead. Starlings answered the storm Beating stones on the cliff, 40 Icy-feathered, and often 80 The eagle would shriek, Wet of wing. And the tempests beat on the rocks, and the storm-wind that maketh afeard The terrible storm that fetters the earth, the winter-bale, When the shadow of night falls wan, and wild is the rush of the hail, The cruel rush from the north, which maketh men to quail. Hardship-full is the earth, o'erturned when the stark Wyrds say: 85 Byrnied chief, i. e., chief arrayed in his "byrnie," or war-shirt. For he little believes To whom life's joy belongs In the town, lightly troubled With dangerous tracks, Vain with high spirit 50 1 The date and authorship are unknown. Some scholars think that the Seafarer is a dialogue between an old sailor and a young man who longs to go to sea, but as this is mere conjecture, no attempt has been made in the present version to indicate the respective parts. There is no man among us So proud in his mind, Groves bud with green, To each ere the severing hour: 125 Old age, sickness, or slaughter, Will force the doomed soul to depart. 65 Therefore for each of the earls, Of those who shall afterwards name them, This is best laud from the living 130 In last words spoken about him:He worked ere he went his way, 75 By children of men, His glory grows ever With angels of God, Of bliss with the bold. 140 With woeful note And bleaches his face; The cuckoo warns, He is grey-haired and grieves, 160 The summer's warden sings, Knows he now must give up And sorrow rules 100 The old friends he cherished, The heart-store bitterly. Chief children of earth. No man can know, The husk of flesh, Nursed in soft ease, When life is fled, 165 The burden borne Shall taste no sweetness, Feel no sore; The farthest from their friends. Is in its hand no touch; Is in its brain no thought. In the soul's secret chamber My mind now is set, Strew gold in the grave, My heart's thought, on wide waters, Bury him pompously The home of the whale; 110 Borne to the dead, It wanders away Entomb him with treasure, Beyond limits of land: The trouble is vain: 175 Comes again to me, yearning The soul of the sinful 1 This poem appears originally in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 937. It celebrates a battle fought at Brunanburh, between the West Saxons led by King Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, and Edmund the Athling (or prince), and a combined force of Danes, Scots, and Britons led by Constantinus and Anlaf. The site of Brunanburh has never been satisfactorily established. The most likely place seems to be the old Brunne, now Bourne, in Lincolnshire. (See Ramsay's Foundations of England, I. 285.) Tennyson based his version of the poem upon his son's prose translation from the original Old English. Drew to this island Doom'd to the death. VII 45 50 |