Page:Poems - Sayers (1792).djvu/59

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[ 51 ]

Should laugh at fear, and boldly die to claim
A seat of joy?[1]

ΜΟΙΝΑ.

Be quickly fill'd witSo may Valhalla's halls
Be quickly fill'd with souls of fallen Saxons!—
Thou unseen power, who in my country's woods
In awful silence dwell'st, whom trembling Druids
With hallow'd rites invoke, arise, arise,
And wing the well-aim'd dart to Harold's bosom—

  1. ↑ A seat of joy.] To mix with the warlike deities of the North, to enjoy the festivity of Valhalla, and to quaff ale and mead from the sculls of their enemies, were the rewards which Odin offered to the brave in a future state; a mixture of pleasure and revenge which was admirably calculated to act upon the minds of a barbarous race.

CHORUS.

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