The Poems of William Wordsworth - Humanities-Ebooks

Ecclesiastical Sketches 373
Of Pagan night. Afflicted and dismayed, 5
The Relics of the sword flee to the mountains:
O wretched Land, whose tears have flowed like fountains!
Whose arts and honours in the dust are laid,
By men yet scarcely conscious of a care
For other monuments than those of Earth; 10
Intent, as fields and woods have given them birth,
To build their savage fortunes only there;
Witness the foss, the barrow, and the girth
Of many a long-drawn rampart, green and bare!
XII. Monastery of Old Bangor
The oppression of the tumult—wrath and scorn—
The tribulation—and the gleaming blades—
Such is the impetuous spirit that pervades
The song of Taliesin ;—Ours shall mourn
The unarmed Host who by their prayers would turn 5
The sword from Bangor’s walls, and guard the store
Of Aboriginal and Roman lore,
And Christian monuments, that now must burn
To senseless ashes. Mark! how all things swerve
From their known course, or pass away like steam; 10
Another language spreads from coast to coast;
“The last six lines of this Sonnet are chiefly from the prose of Daniel; and here I will state
(though to the Readers whom this Poem will chiefly interest it is unnecessary), that my
obligations to other Prose Writers are frequent,—obligations, which even if I had not a
pleasure in courting, it would have been presumptuous to shun, in treating an historical
subject. I must, however, particularize Fuller, to whom I am indebted in the Sonnet upon
Wicliffe and in other instances. And upon the Acquittal of the Seven Bishops I have done
little more than versify a lively description of that Event in the Memoirs of the first Lord
Lonsdale.” WW
“ ‘ Ethelforth reached the Convent of Bangor, he perceived the Monks, twelve hundred in
number, offering prayers for the success of their Countrymen: ‘if they are praying against
us;’ he exclaimed, ‘they are fighting against us,’ and he ordered them to be first attacked:
they were destroyed; and appalled by their fate, the courage of Brocmail wavered, and he
fled from the field in dismay. Thus abandoned by their leader, his army soon gave way, and
Ethelforth obtained a decisive conquest. Ancient Bangor itself soon fell into his hands and
was demolished; the noble monastery was levelled to the ground; its library, which is mentioned
as a large one, the collection of ages, the repository of the most precious monuments
of the ancient Britons, was consumed; half-ruined walls, gates, and rubbish, were all that
remained of the magnificent edifice.’—See Turner’s valuable History of the Anglo-Saxons.
The account Bede gives of this remarkable event, suggests a most striking warning
against National and Religious prejudices.” WW
“Taliesin was present at the battle which preceded this desolation.” WW