Page:Felicia Hemans in The Literary Gazette 1821.pdf/12



Addressed to The Cymmrodorion Society, or Royal Cambrian Institution for the Encouragement of Welsh Literature.—By Mrs. HEMANS.

is a glorious hour to him Who stands on Snowdon's crested brow, When Twilight's lingering Star grows dim, And mists with Morn's resplendence glow;

And, rolling swift before the breeze, Unveil to his enraptur'd eye, Girt with green isles and sparkling seas, All Cambria's mountain-majesty!

But there hath been a brighter hour! 'Twas when her voice from silence broke, And, as an Eagle in its power, The Spirit of the Land awoke!

From the far depths of ages gone, From the low chambers of the dead, It woke! and brightly moving on, A sun-beam o'er the Mountains spread.

And there were sounds, where'er it pass'd,    O'er Druid-rock and fairy-dell, Of Song upon the rushing blast, Of Minstrelsy’s triumphant swell;

While, as * Eryri's torrent waves With joyous music hail'd its way, Ten thousand echoes from their caves Burst to prolong th' exulting lay.

And thou, O Harp! to whose deep tone Was given a power, in elder time, A might, a magic all thine own, The burning soul of Cambria's clime;

Thou, hallow'd thus by Freedom's breath, To guard her fortresses on high, With sounds awakening scorn of death, Instinct with Immortality;