Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott
page 29 of 72 (40%)
page 29 of 72 (40%)
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For that sad pageant of events to be
Showed every form of fight by field and flood; Slaughter and Ruin, shouting forth their glee, Beheld, while riding on the tempest scud, The waters choked with slain, the earth bedrenched with blood! LI. Then Zaragoza--blighted be the tongue That names thy name without the honour due! For never hath the harp of Minstrel rung, Of faith so felly proved, so firmly true! Mine, sap, and bomb thy shattered ruins knew, Each art of war's extremity had room, Twice from thy half-sacked streets the foe withdrew, And when at length stern fate decreed thy doom, They won not Zaragoza, but her children's bloody tomb. LII. Yet raise thy head, sad city! Though in chains, Enthralled thou canst not be! Arise, and claim Reverence from every heart where Freedom reigns, For what thou worshippest!--thy sainted dame, She of the Column, honoured be her name By all, whate'er their creed, who honour love! And like the sacred relics of the flame, That gave some martyr to the blessed above, To every loyal heart may thy sad embers prove! LIII. Nor thine alone such wreck. Gerona fair! |
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