And even the ranks of Tuscany But fiercely ran the current, Swollen high by months of rain: Never, I ween, did swimmer, Struggle through such a raging flood And our good father Tiber Bore bravely up his chin. "Curse on him!" quoth false Sextus; We should have sacked the town!" "Heaven help him!" quoth Lars Porsena, "And bring him safe to shore; For such a gallant feat of arms Was never seen before." And now he feels the bottom; To And now, with shouts and clapping, They gave him of the corn-land, Could plow from morn till night; And set it up on high, And there it stands unto this day It stands in the Comitium,2 24 How valiantly he kept the bridge In the brave days of old. And still his name sounds stirring Unto the men of Rome, As the trumpet-blast that cries to them To charge the Volscian25 home; And wives still pray to Juno26 For boys with hearts as bold 24. The Comitium was the old Roman polling place, a square situated between the Forum and the Senate House. 25. The Volscians were among the most determined of the Italian enemies of Rome. 26. Juno was the goddess who was thought of as presiding over marriage and the birth of children. As his who kept the bridge so well And in the nights of winter, When the cold north-winds blow, HORATIUS IN HIS HARNESS, HALTING UPON ONE KNEE And the long howling of the wolves When the oldest cask is opened, When the chestnuts glow in the embers, When young and old in circle When the goodman mends his armor, How well Horatius kept the bridge 27. You can tell from these last three stanzas, that Macaulay is writing his poem, not as an Englishman of the nineteenth century, but as if he were a Roman in the days when Rome, though powerful, had not yet become the luxurious city which it afterward was. That is, he thought of himself as writing in the days of the Republic, not in the days of the Empire. LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER A By THOMAS CAMPBELL CHIEFTAIN, to the Highlands Cries, "Boatman, do not tarry! "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 fast before her father's men Three days we've fled together, For should he find us in the glen, My blood would stain the heather. "His horsemen hard behind us ride; Out spoke the hardy Highland wight, "And by my word! the bonny bird In danger shall not tarry; |