Vain, vain was all Llewelyn's woe—
“Best of thy kind, adieu !
The frantic deed which laid thee low
This heart shall ever rue!”
And now a gallant tomb they raise,
With costly sculpture deck'd,
And marbles, storied with his praise,
Poor Gelert's bones protect.
Here never could the spearman pass
Or forester unmoved :
Here oft the tear-besprinkled grass
Llewelyn's sorrow proved.
And here he hung his horn and spear ;
And oft as evening fell,
In fancy's piercing sounds would hear
Poor Gelert's dying yell.
Tum doluit frustra mærore Luellus inani;
"Exsuperas fidum qui genus omne, vale!
Quæ te quæ rabies spoliavit perfida vita
Usque erit in memori corde dolenda meo."
Funerea ædificant pompa regale sepulchrum, Arte, en egregia sculptile surgit opus! Laudibus inscriptis celebrantia marmora famam Ossa canis fidi contumulata tegunt.
Venator potuit nunquam, nunquam incola silvæ
Pectore non tristi præteriisse locum,
Rorata et lacrimis stillantibus herba, Luelli
Sæpe est tristitiam testificata gravem.
Hic quoque suspendit cornu suspendit et hastam, Sæpe et, quum clausit vesperis hora diem, Credulus audivit miserandum morte sub ipsa Vocibus extremis exululare canem.
O YE whom wrath consumes! who, passion stung,
Writhe at defeat, and nurse your agonies!
Shut up your senses, stifle up your ears,
My voice is not a bellows unto ire.
Yet listen, ye who will, whilst I bring proof
How ye, perforce, must be content to stoop :
And in the proof much comfort will I give,
If
ye will take that comfort in its truth.
We fall by course of nature's law, not force
Of thunder, or of Jove. Great Saturn, thou
Hast sifted well the atom-universe;
But for this reason that thou art the king
And only blind from sheer supremacy,
One avenue was shaded from thine eyes
Through which I wander'd to eternal truth.
And first as thou wast not the first of powers,
So art not thou the last: it cannot be—
Thou art not the beginning nor the end.
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new.
SUCCENSI O rabie! vos qui sub corde furoris
Angentes premitis stimulos, vincique doletis,
Claudite nunc aures, sensus hebetate repressos!
Non mea enim folles iræ vox ignibus addit.
Verum audite tamen, qui saltem audire velitis,
Dum doceo indiciis ut ineluctabile fatum
Cedere vos cogit, simul indiciisque doloris
Adjicio præsens præsentibus ipse levamen ;
Si modo sinceræ vos vera levamina vocis
Accipitis. Cadimus naturæ lege coacti,
Non Iovis armata vi, non Iovis igne caduco.—
Maxime tu vero prisci primordia mundi
Acriter excutiens animo, Saturne, revolvis,
At frustra ille labor. Te Regem intelligis esse,
Imperii et splendor sic Regis lumina cæcat,
Ut via secreto te calle fefellerit una,
Quæ mea ad æternum duxit vestigia Verum.
Primum igitur, primus qui non Deus ante fuisti Nunc etiam-sic Fata ferunt-non ultimus exstas, Tu neque principium, neque finis.
From chaos and parental darkness came
Light, the first fruits of that intestine broil,
That sullen ferment which for wondrous ends
Was ripening in itself. The ripe hour came,
And with it light, and light engendering
Upon its own producer, forthwith touch'd
The whole enormous matter into life.
Upon that very hour our parentage,
The Heavens and the Earth were manifest.
Then thou first-born, and we the giant-race
Found ourselves ruling new and beauteous realms.
Now comes the pain of truth, to whom 'tis pain;
O folly for to bear all naked truths,
And to envisage circumstance, all calm,
That is the top of sovereignty. Mark well!
As Heaven and Earth are fairer, fairer far
Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once
And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth
In form and shape compact and beautiful,
In will, in action free, companionship
And thousand other signs of purer life;
So on our heels a fresh perfection treads,
A power more strong in beauty, born of us
And fated to excel us, as we pass
In glory that old darkness: nor are we
Thereby more conquer'd than by us the rule
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