Britons and Celts
A Blessing for a Canary Artist
“The king was mighty inquisitive to know who this Raeph was. Ben told him ‘twas the artist at the Swan tavern, by Charing Cross, who drew him a good canary.” […]
Poetry
Viking
Duel of Swords and Words
“Gisli, who was out in the woods, heard this and answered, “Find some better employment for your farmhands. Here is a man who dares to fight you.” […]
Britons and Celts
Just What Happens on a Wedding Night?
“Let, wing’d with pleasure, the soft minutes flow,
And lasting bliss no interruption know,
While with like heat, her faithful bosom warms;
For in his time he was the flower of arms.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Phalanx March
“As ravening fire rips through big stands of timber high on a mountain ridge and the blaze flares miles away, so from the marching troops the blaze of bronze armor, splendid and superhuman, flared across the earth, flashing into the air to hit the skies.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Pharaoh’s Losses
“One thousand and five hundred years, and seventy, less one,
Before the birth, as I have found, of God’s incarnate Son,
Was Pharaoh, following the Jews, in the Red Sea Undone” […]
Greek and Roman
The Goddess Prepares for War
“Then onto the flaming chariot Pallas set her feet and seized her spear – weighted, heavy, the massive shaft she wields to break the battle lines of heroes the mighty Father’s daughter storms against.” […]
Greek and Roman
Front-Line Poetry
“Now the savage work went on, Acheans and Trojans mauling each other there like wolves, leaping, hurtling into each other, man throttling man.” […]
Britons and Celts
A Bloody Battle in Ballad
“Such deeds were wrought, as truly ‘twere a crime,
Them to describe in our unlearned rhyme.
How arms met arms, and swords went clishy clash.
For rural lays to sing would be too rash.” […]
Britons and Celts
A Legend in Battle
“With hard steel clubs they clattered at helmets,
Crushing down crests and crashing through brains,
Slaying infantry and armored horses,
Chopping down chevaliers on chalk-white chargers.” […]
Britons and Celts
Nothing Will Stop William Wallace
“But they in vain to break it did essay,
Till Wallace fretting at the long delay,
Came on himself, and with a furious shock,
The bar and staple all in flinders broke.” […]