Lo the palaces and the temple, lo the colony Cámulodúne ! There they ruled, and thence they wasted all the flourishing territory, Thither at their will they haled the yellowringleted Britoness— Bloodily, bloodily fall the battle-axe, unexhausted, inexorable. Shout Icenian, Catieuchlanian, shout Coritanian, Trinobant, Till the victim hear within and yearn to hurry precipitously Like the leaf in a roaring whirlwind, like the smoke in a hurricane whirl'd. Lo the colony, there they rioted in the city of Cúnobelíne ! There they drank in cups of emerald, there at tables of ebony lay, Rolling on their purple couches in their tender effeminacy. There they dwelt and there they rioted; therethere they dwell no more. Burst the gates, and burn the palaces, break the works of the statuary, Take the hoary Roman head and shatter it, hold it abominable, Cut the Roman boy to pieces in his lust and voluptuousness, Lash the maiden into swooning, me they lash'd and humiliated, Chop the breasts from off the mother, dash the brains of the little one out, Up my Britons, on my chariot, on my chargers, trample them under us. So the Queen Boädicéa, standing loftily charioted, Brandishing in her hand a dart and rolling glances lioness-like, Yell'd and shriek'd between her daughters in her fierce volubility. Till her people all around the royal chariot agitated, Madly dash'd the darts together, writhing barbarous lineäments, Made the noise of frosty woodlands, when they shiver in January, Roar'd as when the roaring breakers boom and blanch on the precipices, Yell'd as when the winds of winter tear an oak on a promontory. So the silent colony hearing her tumultuous adversaries Clash the darts and on the buckler beat with rapid unanimous hand, Thought on all her evil tyrannies, all her pitiless avarice, Till she felt the heart within her fall and flutter tremulously, Then her pulses at the clamouring of her enemy fainted away. Out of evil evil flourishes, out of tyranny tyranny buds. Ran the land with Roman slaughter, multitudinous agonies. Perish'd many a maid and matron, many a valorous legionary, Fell the colony, city, and citadel, London, Verulam, Cámulodúne. IN QUANTITY ON TRANSLATIONS OF HOMER Hexameters and Pentameters THESE lame hexameters the strong-wing'd music of Homer! No-but a most burlesque barbarous experi ment. When was a harsher sound ever heard, ye Muses, in England? When did a frog coarser croak upon our Helicon ? Hexameters no worse than daring Germany gave us, Barbarous experiment, barbarous hexameters. MILTON Alcaics O MIGHTY-MOUTH'D inventor of harmonies, Rings to the roar of an angel onset- Charm, as a wanderer out in ocean, |