li

6

SELECT POETRY

‘Think of ambitious Cesar,
And Pompey great and brave ;—

To have seen their legions in the field,
Their galleys on the wave. -

I should have seen Rome’s glory dimmed,
When round her leaguered! wall

Came down the Vandal and the Goth,
The Scythian and the Gaul ;

And the dwarfish Huns by myriads,
From the unknown northern shores ;
As if the verv earth gave up
The brown men of the moors.

I should have seen old Wodin?
And his seven sons go forth,

From the green banks of the Caspian Sea
To the dim wilds of the North;

To the dark and piny forests,
Where he made his drear abode,
‘And taught his wild and fearful faith,
And thus became their god.
And the terrible Vikingr,?
Dwellers on the stormy sea,
The Norsemen! and their Runic® lore,
Had all been known to me.

! Leaguered—besieged.
* Wodin—one of the deified heroes of Saxon Mythology :

we have his name in Wednesday, that is Wodin's-day.

3 Vikingr—Sea-Kings, pirates so called, famous in our

early history.

4 Norsemen—northern-men, from the north of Europe.
5 Runie—mysterious, a name given to certain alplabetic
characters cut in stones found in Norway, Sweden, and somie

other countries.