William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
Song to Ælla Lord of the Castle of Bristol in the Days of YoreThomas Chatterton (17521770)
O
Ælla, the darling of futurity,
Let this my song bold as thy courage be,
As everlasting to posterity.
Like king-cups bursting with the morning dew,
Arranged in drear array,
Upon the deadly day,
Spread far and wide on Watchet’s shore;
Then didst thou furious stand,
And by thy valiant hand
Besprenged all the mees with gore.
Down to the depth of hell
Thousands of Dacians went;
Brystowans, men of might,
Y-dared the bloody fight,
And acted deeds full quent.
Thy sprite to haunt delighteth best,
Whether upon the blood-embruèd plain,
Or where thou know’st from far
The dismal cry of war,
Or seest some mountain made of corse of slain;
Y-prancing o’er the mead,
And neigh to be among the pointed spears;
Or, in black armour stalk’st around
Embattled Bristol, once thy ground,
And glow, ardurous, on the castle-stairs;
Let Bristol still be made thy care;
Guard it from foemen and consuming fire.
Like Avon’s stream, ensyrke it round,
Nor let a flame enharm the ground,
Till in one flame all the whole world expire.