[Page 113]

HYMN TO WODEN.

1 God of the battle, hear our prayer!
2 By the lifted falchion's glare;
3 By the uncouth fane sublime,
4 Marked with many a Runic rhyme;
5 By the "weird sisters"
65 Valkyriæ, or choosers of the slain. See Gray's "Fatal Sisters," et cet.
dread,
6 That, posting through the battle red,
7 Choose the slain, and with them go
8 To Valhalla's halls below,
9 Where the phantom-chiefs prolong
10 Their echoing feast, a giant throng,
11 And their dreadful beverage drain
12 From the skulls of warriors slain:
13 God of the battle, hear our prayer;
14 And may we thy banquet share!
15 Save us, god, from slow disease;
16 From pains that the brave spirit freeze;
17 From the burning fever's rage;
18 From wailings of unhonoured age,
19 Drawing painful his last breath;
20 Give us in the battle death!
21 Let us lift our glittering shield,
22 And perish, perish in the field!
23 Now o'er Cumri's hills of snow
24 To death, or victory, we go;
25 Hark! the chiefs their cars prepare;
26 See! they bind their yellow hair;
27 Frenzy flashes from their eye,
28 They fly our foes before them fly!
29 Woden, in thy empire drear,
30 Thou the groans of death dost hear,[Page 114]
31 And welcome to thy dusky hall
32 Those that for their country fall!
33 Hail, all hail the godlike train,
34 That with thee the goblet drain;
35 Or with many a huge compeer,
36 Lift, as erst, the shadowy spear!
37 Whilst Hela's inmost caverns dread
38 Echo to their giant tread,
39 And ten thousand thousand shields
40 Flash lightning o'er the glimmering fields!
41 Hark! the battle-shouts begin
42 Louder sounds the glorious din:
43 Louder than the ice's roar,
44 Bursting on the thawing shore;
45 Or crashing pines that strew the plain,
46 When the whirlwinds hurl the main!
47 Riding through the death-field red,
48 And singling fast the destined dead,
49 See the fatal sisters fly!
50 Now my throbbing breast beats high
51 Now I urge my panting steed,
52 Where the foemen thickest bleed.
53 Soon exulting I shall go,
54 Woden, to thy halls below;
55 Or o'er the victims, as they die,
56 Chaunt the song of Victory!

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Title (in Source Edition): HYMN TO WODEN.
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Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street..., 1855, pp. 113-114.  (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)

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