The Poetical Remains Author:John Leyden General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1819 Original Publisher: Strahan and Spottiswoode Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com wher... more »e you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: ODE ON VISITING FLODDEN. Green Flodden, on thy blood-stain'd head Descend no rain nor vernal dew ! But still, thou charnel of the dead, May whitening bones thy surface strew ! Soon as I tread thy rush-clad vale, Wild fancy feels the clasping mail; The rancour of a thousand years Glows in my breast; again I burn To see the banner'd pomp of war return, And mark beneath the moon the silver light of spears. Lo ! bursting from their common tomb, The spirits of the ancient dead Dimly streak the parted gloom, With awful faces, ghastly red; As once around their martial king They clos'd the death-devoted ring, With dauntless hearts, unknown to yield; In slow procession round the pile Of heaving corses moves each shadowy file, And chaunts in solemn strain the dirge of Flodden field. What youth, of graceful form and mien, Foremost leads the spectred brave, While o'er his mantle's folds of green His amber locks redundant wave ? When slow returns the fated day, That view'd their chieftain's long array, Wild to the harp's deep, plaintive string, The virgins raise the funeral strain, From Ord's black mountain to the northern main, And mourn the emerald hue which paints the vest of spring. Under the vigorous administration of James IV., the young earl of Caithness incurred the penalty of outlawry and forfeiture, for revenging an ancient feud. On the evening preceding the battle of Flodden, accompanied by 300 young warriors, arrayed in green, he presented himself before the king, and submitted to his mercy. This mark of attachment was so agreeable to...« less