[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
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!
Source edition
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.)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by William Lisle Bowles
- ABBA THULE'S LAMENT FOR HIS SON PRINCE LE BOO. ()
- ABSENCE. ()
- ABSENCE. OCTOBER 26, 1791. ()
- AGE. ()
- APPROACH OF SUMMER. ()
- ART AND NATURE. THE BRIDGE BETWEEN CLIFTON AND LEIGH WOODS. ()
- ASSOCIATIONS. ()
- AT DOVER, 1786. ()
- AT MALVERN. ()
- AT OXFORD, 1786. ()
- AT TYNEMOUTH PRIORY, AFTER A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE. ()
- AVENUE IN SAVERNAKE FOREST. ()
- BAMBOROUGH CASTLE. ()
- BATTLE OF CORRUNA. ()
- THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. ()
- THE BELLS, OSTEND. ()
- BEREAVEMENT. ()
- CADLAND, SOUTHAMPTON RIVER. ()
- A CENOTAPH, TO THE MEMORY OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ISAAC, WHO DIED AT CAPE ST NICHOLA MOLE, 1797. ()
- THE CONVENT. ()
- COOMBE-ELLEN. ()
- DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOKE, OF “THE BELLEROPHON,” KILLED IN THE SAME BATTLE. ()
- DIRGE OF NELSON. ()
- DISTANT VIEW OF ENGLAND FROM THE SEA. ()
- DOVER CLIFFS. ()
- THE DYING SLAVE. ()
- ELEGIAC STANZAS. WRITTEN DURING SICKNESS AT BATH. ()
- ELEGY WRITTEN AT THE HOTWELLS, BRISTOL, JULY, 1789. ()
- EPITAPH ON H. WALMSLEY, ESQ., IN ALVERSTOKE CHURCH, HANTS. ()
- EVENING. ()
- EXHIBITION, 1807. ()
- FAIRY SKETCH. SCENE — NETLEY ABBEY. ()
- A GARDEN-SEAT AT HOME. ()
- THE GRAVE OF HOWARD. ()
- GREENWICH HOSPITAL. ()
- THE HARP OF HOEL. ()
- THE HARP, AND DESPAIR, OF COWPER. ()
- HOPE, AN ALLEGORICAL SKETCH. ()
- HOPE. ()
- HOUR-GLASS AND BIBLE. ()
- IN HORTO REV. J. STILL, APUD KNOYLE, VILLAM AMŒNISSIMAM. ()
- IN MEMORIAM. ()
- INFLUENCE OF TIME ON GRIEF. ()
- INSCRIPTION. ()
- LACOCK NUNNERY. JUNE 24, 1837. ()
- THE LAST SONG OF CAMOENS. ()
- MILTON. ON THE BUSTS OF MILTON, IN YOUTH AND AGE, AT STOURHEAD. ()
- THE MISSIONARY. ()
- MONODY ON HENRY HEADLEY. ()
- MONODY ON THE DEATH OF DR WARTON. ()
- MONODY, WRITTEN AT MATLOCK. ()
- MUSIC. ()
- MUSIC. ()
- NETLEY ABBEY. ()
- ON A BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE. ()
- ON A BEAUTIFUL SPRING, FORMING A COLD BATH, AT COOMBE, NEAR DONHEAD, BELONGING TO MY BROTHER, CHAS. BOWLES, ESQ. ()
- ON A LANDSCAPE BY RUBENS. ()
- ON ACCIDENTALLY MEETING A LADY NOW NO MORE. WRITTEN MANY YEARS AFTER THE FOREGOING SONNETS. ()
- ON AN UNFORTUNATE AND BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. WRITTEN DECEMBER 1783. ()
- ON ENTERING SWITZERLAND. ()
- ON HEARING “THE MESSIAH” PERFORMED IN GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL, SEPT. 18, 1835. ()
- ON LANDING AT OSTEND. ()
- ON LEAVING A PLACE OF RESIDENCE. ()
- ON LEAVING A VILLAGE IN SCOTLAND. ()
- ON LEAVING WINCHESTER SCHOOL. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1782. ()
- ON MR HOWARD'S ACCOUNT OF LAZARETTOS. ()
- ON RESIGNING A SCHOLARSHIP OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND RETIRING TO A COUNTRY CURACY. ()
- ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM BENWELL, M.A. ()
- ON WILLIAM SOMMERS OF BREMHILL. ()
- OXFORD REVISITED. ()
- THE PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY. INSCRIBED TO THE DUKE OF LEEDS. ()
- PICTURE OF A YOUNG LADY. ()
- PICTURE OF AN OLD MAN. ()
- PICTURES FROM THEOCRITUS. ()
- POLE-VELLUM, CORNWALL. A PICTURESQUE COTTAGE AND GROUNDS BELONGING TO J. LEMON, ESQ. ()
- RETROSPECTION. ()
- THE RHINE. ()
- THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE. ()
- THE RIVER CHERWELL. ()
- THE RIVER WAINSBECK. ()
- A RUSTIC SEAT NEAR THE SEA. ()
- SHAKSPEARE. ()
- SKETCH FROM BOWDEN HILL AFTER SICKNESS. ()
- SKETCHES IN THE EXHIBITION, 1805. ()
- SONG OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. ()
- SOUTHAMPTON CASTLE. INSCRIBED TO THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. ()
- SOUTHAMPTON WATER. ()
- THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY BY SEA: A DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL POEM. ()
- THE SPIRIT OF NAVIGATION. ()
- ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT. INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD SOMERS. ()
- STANZAS FOR MUSIC. ()
- SUMMER EVENING AT HOME. ()
- SUN-DIAL, IN THE CHURCHYARD OF BREMHILL. ()
- THE SYLPH OF SUMMER. ()
- TO A FRIEND. ()
- TO SIR WALTER SCOTT. ON ACCIDENTLY MEETING AND PARTING WITH SIR WALTER SCOTT, WHOM I HAD NOT SEEN FOR MANY YEARS, IN THE STREETS OF LONDON, MAY 1828. ()
- TO THE RIVER ITCHIN. ()
- [TRANSLATION] OF A LATIN POEM BY THE REV. NEWTON OGLE, DEAN OF MANCHESTER. ()
- THE TWEED VISITED. ()
- THE VISIONARY BOY. ()
- WARDOUR CASTLE. ()
- WATER-PARTY ON BEAULIEU RIVER, IN THE NEW FOREST. ()
- THE WINDS. ()
- WINTER EVENING AT HOME. ()
- WOODSPRING ABBEY, 1836. ()