Thomas Campbell (1777 – 1844)
Scottish poet, who served as Lord Rector of Glasgow University (1826–1829).
A stoic of the woods—a man without a tear.
On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow,
His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below.
Let Winter come! let polar spirits sweep
The darkening world, and tempest-troubled deep!
Though boundless snows the withered heath deform,
And the dim sun scarce wanders through the storm,
Yet shall the smile of social love repay,
With mental light, the melancholy day!
And, when its short and sullen noon is o'er,
The ice-chained waters slumbering on the shore,
How bright the fagots in his little hall
Blaze on the hearth, and warm the pictured wall!
That gems the starry girdle of the year.
Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lower'd,
And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;
And thousands had sunk on the ground overpower'd,
The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.
The combat deepens. On, ye brave,
Who rush to glory or the grave!
Wave, Munich! all thy banners wave,
And charge with all thy chivalry!
"Now who be ye would cross Lochgyle,
This dark and stormy water?"
"O I'm the chief of Ulva's isle,
And this, Lord Ullin's daughter.
And rival all but Shakespeare's name below.
'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.
The torrent's smoothness, ere it dash below!
Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shrieked—as Kosciusko fell!
Ye are brothers! ye are men!
And we conquer but to save.
And muse on Nature with a poet's eye.
A chieftain to the Highlands bound
Cries, "Boatman, do not tarry!
And I'll give thee a silver pound
To row us o'er the ferry!"
Without the smile from partial beauty won,
Oh what were man?—a world without a sun.
To-morrow let us do or die.
Melt and dispel, ye spectre-doubts, that roll
Cimmerian darkness o'er the parting soul!
Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is o'er the mountain waves,
Her home is on the deep.
But Hope, the charmer, linger'd still behind.