Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle upon the Restoration of Lord Clifford, the Shepherd, to the Estates and Honours of his Ancestors
Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle upon the Restoration of Lord Clifford, the Shepherd, to the Estates and Honours of his Ancestors
Original Text
William Wordsworth, Poems in Two Volumes (1807). See The Manuscript of William Wordsworth's Poems, in Two Volumes (1807): A Facsimile (London: British Library, 1984). bib MASS (Massey College, Toronto).
2And Emont's murmur mingled with the Song.--
3The words of ancient time I thus translate,
4A festal strain that hath been silent long:--
5 "From town to town, from tower to tower,
6 The red rose is a gladsome flower.
7 Her thirty years of winter past,
8 The red rose is revived at last;
9 She lifts her head for endless spring,
10 For everlasting blossoming:
11 Both roses flourish, red and white:
12 In love and sisterly delight
13 The two that were at strife are blended,
14 And all old troubles now are ended.--
15 Joy! joy to both! but most to her
16 Who is the flower of Lancaster!
17 Behold her how She smiles to-day
18 On this great throng, this bright array!
19 Fair greeting doth she send to all
20 From every corner of the hall;
21 But chiefly from above the board
22 Where sits in state our rightful Lord,
23 A Clifford to his own restored!
24 "They came with banner, spear, and shield;
25 And it was proved in Bosworth-field.
26 Not long the Avenger was withstood--
28 St. George was for us, and the might
29 Of blessed Angels crowned the right.
30 Loud voice the Land has uttered forth,
31 We loudest in the faithful north:
32 Our fields rejoice, our mountains ring,
33 Our streams proclaim a welcoming;
34 Our strong-abodes and castles see
35 The glory of their loyalty.
36 "How glad is Skipton at this hour--
37 Though lonely, a deserted Tower;
38 Knight, squire, and yeoman, page and groom,
39 We have them at the feast of Brough'm.
40 How glad Pendragon--though the sleep
41 Of years be on her!--She shall reap
42 A taste of this great pleasure, viewing
43 As in a dream her own renewing.
44 Rejoiced is Brough, right glad, I deem,
45 Beside her little humble stream;
47 Her statelier Eden's course to guard;
48 They both are happy at this hour,
49 Though each is but a lonely Tower:--
50 But here is perfect joy and pride
51 For one fair House by Emont's side,
52 This day, distinguished without peer,
53 To see her Master and to cheer--
54 Him, and his Lady-mother dear!
55 "Oh! it was a time forlorn
56 When the fatherless was born--
57 Give her wings that she may fly,
58 Or she sees her infant die!
59 Swords that are with slaughter wild
60 Hunt the Mother and the Child.
61 Who will take them from the light?
62 --Yonder is a man in sight--
63 Yonder is a house--but where?
64 No, they must not enter there.
65 To the caves, and to the brooks,
66 To the clouds of heaven she looks;
67 She is speechless, but her eyes
68 Pray in ghostly agonies.
69 Blissful Mary, Mother mild,
70 Maid and Mother undefiled,
71 Save a Mother and her Child!
72 "Now who is he that bounds with joy
73 On Carrock's side, a Shepherd-boy?
74 No thoughts hath he but thoughts that pass
75 Light as the wind along the grass.
76 Can this be He who hither came
77 In secret, like a smothered flame?
78 O'er whom such thankful tears were shed
79 For shelter, and a poor man's bread!
80 God loves the Child; and God hath willed
81 That those dear words should be fulfilled,
82 The Lady's words, when forced away
83 The last she to her Babe did say:
84 "My own, my own, thy fellow-guest
85 I may not be; but rest thee, rest,
86 For lowly shepherd's life is best!"
87 "Alas! when evil men are strong
88 No life is good, no pleasure long.
89 The Boy must part from Mosedale's groves,
90 And leave Blencathara's rugged coves,
91 And quit the flowers that summer brings
92 To Glenderamakin's lofty springs;
93 Must vanish, and his careless cheer
94 Be turned to heaviness and fear.
95 --Give Sir Lancelot Threlkeld praise!
96 Hear it, good man, old in days!
97 Thou tree of covert and of rest
98 For this young Bird that is distrest;
99 Among thy branches safe he lay,
100 And he was free to sport and play,
101 When falcons were abroad for prey.
102 "A recreant harp, that sings of fear
103 And heaviness in Clifford's ear!
104 I said, when evil men are strong,
105 No life is good, no pleasure long,
106 A weak and cowardly untruth!
107 Our Clifford was a happy Youth,
108 And thankful through a weary time,
109 That brought him up to manhood's prime.
110 --Again he wanders forth at will,
111 And tends a flock from hill to hill:
112 His garb is humble; ne'er was seen
113 Such garb with such a noble mien;
114 Among the shepherd-grooms no mate
115 Hath he, a Child of strength and state!
116 Yet lacks not friends for simple glee,
117 Nor yet for higher sympathy.
118 To his side the fallow-deer
119 Came and rested without fear;
120 The eagle, lord of land and sea,
121 Stooped down to pay him fealty;
123 Through Bowscale-tarn did wait on him;
124 The pair were servants of his eye
125 In their immortality;
126 And glancing, gleaming, dark or bright,
127 Moved to and fro, for his delight.
128 He knew the rocks which Angels haunt
129 Upon the mountains visitant;
130 He hath kenned them taking wing:
131 And into caves where Faeries sing
132 He hath entered; and been told
133 By Voices how men lived of old.
134 Among the heavens his eye can see
135 The face of thing that is to be;
136 And, if that men report him right,
137 His tongue could whisper words of might.
138 --Now another day is come,
139 Fitter hope, and nobler doom;
140 He hath thrown aside his crook,
141 And hath buried deep his book;
142 Armour rusting in his halls
143 On the blood of Clifford calls,--
144 'Quell the Scot,' exclaims the Lance--
145 Bear me to the heart of France,
146 Is the longing of the Shield--
147 Tell thy name, thou trembling field;
148 Field of death, where'er thou be,
149 Groan thou with our victory!
150 Happy day, and mighty hour,
151 When our Shepherd, in his power,
152 Mailed and horsed, with lance and sword,
153 To his ancestors restored
154 Like a re-appearing Star,
155 Like a glory from afar
156 First shall head the flock of war!"
157Alas! the impassioned minstrel did not know
158How, by Heaven's grace, this Clifford's heart was framed:
159How he, long forced in humble walks to go,
160Was softened into feeling, soothed, and tamed.
161Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;
162His daily teachers had been woods and rills,
163The silence that is in the starry sky,
164The sleep that is among the lonely hills.
165In him the savage virtue of the Race,
166Revenge and all ferocious thoughts were dead:
167Nor did he change; but kept in lofty place
168The wisdom which adversity had bred.
169Glad were the vales, and every cottage-hearth;
170The Shepherd-lord was honoured more and more;
171And, ages after he was laid in earth,
172"The good Lord Clifford" was the name he bore.
Notes
1] Henry Lord Clifford, the subject of this poem, was a partisan of the House of Lancaster. After the overwhelming defeat of the Lancastrians at Towton Field in 1461, he was "deprived of his estate and honours during the space of twenty-four years; all which time he lived as a shepherd in Yorkshire, or in Cumberland, where the estate of his father-in-law (Sir Lancelot Threlkeld) lay. He was restored to his estate and honours in the first year of Henry the Seventh." (Wordsworth) Threlkeld was actually Clifford's step-father (correction courtesy of Keith Wren), for which see Arthur Mee's The Lake Counties: Cumberland Westmorland (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1937) under "Threlkeld", or Henry Summerson's “Clifford, John, ninth Baron Clifford (1435–1461),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: OUP, 2004). Back to Line
27] "Earth helped him with the cry of blood: This line is from The Battle of Bosworth Field, by Sir John Beaumont (brother of the dramatist)" (Wordsworth). The line is: "The earth assists thee with its cry of blood." Back to Line
46] She that keepeth watch and ward: Appleby Castle. Back to Line
122] Allusion to a local superstition. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1807
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.389.