At the silence of twilight’s contemplative hour, I have mused in a sorrowful mood, On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom the bower, Where the home of my forefathers stood.[84] All ruined and wild is their roofless abode, And lonely the dark raven’s sheltering tree: And travelled by few is the grass-covered road, Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trode To his hills that encircle the sea. Yet wandering, I found on my ruinous walk, By the dial-stone agèd and green, One rose of the wilderness left on its stalk, To mark where a garden had been Like a brotherless hermit, the last of its race, All wild in the silence of nature, it drew, From each wandering sun-beam, a lonely embrace, For the night-weed and thorn overshadowed the place, Where the flower of my forefathers grew. Sweet bud of the wilderness! emblem of all That remains in this desolate heart! The fabric of bliss to its centre may fall, But patience shall never depart! Though the wilds of enchantment, all vernal and bright, In the days of delusion by fancy combined With the vanishing phantoms of love and delight, Abandon my soul, like a dream of the night, And leave but a desert behind. Be hushed, my dark spirit! for wisdom condemns When the faint and the feeble deplore; Be strong as the rock of the ocean that stems A thousand wild waves on the shore! Through the perils of chance, and the scowl of disdain, May thy front be unaltered, thy courage elate! Yea! even the name I have worshipped in vain Shall awake not the sigh of remembrance again: To bear is to conquer our fate. [84] Kirnan. SPANISH PATRIOT’S SONG. How rings each sparkling Spanish brand, There’s music in its rattle; And gay, as for a saraband, We gird us for the battle. Follow, follow! To the glorious revelry, When the sabres bristle, And the death-shots whistle. Of rights for which our swords outspring, Shall Angoulême bereave us? We’ve plucked a bird of nobler wing— The eagle could not brave us. Follow, follow! Shake the Spanish blade, and sing— France shall ne’er enslave us: Tyrants shall not brave us. Shall yonder rag, the Bourbon’s flag, White emblem of his liver, For Spain the proud be Freedom’s shroud? Oh, never, never, never. Follow, follow! Follow to the fight, and sing— Liberty for ever: Ever, ever, ever. Thrice welcome hero of the hilt, We laugh to see his standard; Here let his miscreant blood be spilt Where braver men’s was squandered. Follow, follow! If the laureled tricolor Durst not over-flaunt us, Shall yon lily daunt us?