DIES IRE. FROM THE LATIN OF THOMAS OF CELANO. AY of vengeance, without | King of majesty tremendous, morrow, By thy saving grace defend us, and sorrow, As from saint and seer we borrow. Ah! what terror is im pending When the Judge is seen Holy Jesus, meek, forbearing, sins the death-crown wearing, Save me in that day despairing. Worn and weary, thou hast sought me, And each secret veil is Righteous Judge of retribution, rending! To the throne the trumpet sounding, Death and Nature, 'mazed, are quaking, On the written volume's pages Sits the Judge, the raised arraigning, What shall I, then, say, unfriended, Give, oh, give me absolution As a guilty culprit groaning, Thou to Mary gavst remission, In my prayers no grace discerning, Give me, when thy sheep confiding When the wicked are confounded CEDMON. EDMON is considered the earliest of the English poets. He was a man sprung from the people, and at one time in his life was a mere cowherd. He was, however, addressed one night by a stranger, as he thought, in his sleep, and asked to sing a song. He replied that he could not, when the stranger urged that he could, and that he could sing the "Creation." Cædmon then, wondering at himself, began to sing most beautiful verses. He soon afterward awoke, and went immediately to the reeve of Whitby, who, wise and good man that he was, took him to the abbey and told the wondrous story to the abbess Hilda. He recounted the last night's adventure and repeated the verses, which at once obtained the admiration of the persons present. They then explained to him other parts of Holy Scripture, whereupon he went home and produced a beautiful poem. At the request of the abbess he became a monk, and continued to write poems founded on sacred history. There is a striking resemblance between Cadmon's account of "The Fall of Man," etc., and portions of Milton's "Paradise Lost." Conybeare, in his Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, says: "The pride, rebellion and punishment of Satan and his princes have a resemblance to Milton so remarkable that most of this portion might be almost literally translated by a cento i His thought about his heart, Hot was without him His dire punishment, Then spake he the words: "This narrow place is most unlike That other that we ere knew, High in heaven's kingdom, Which my Master bestowed on me, Though we it, for the All-powerful, May not possess, Must cede our realm. Yet hath he not done rightly, About me lie Of hard iron With which me God Hath fastened by the neck. Thus perceive I that he knoweth my mind. And that knew also The Lord of hosts That should us, through Adam, About the realm of heaven, Where I had power of my hands. But we now suffer chastisement in hell, Which is darkness and heat Grim, bottomless; God hath us himself Swept into these swart mists, Thus he cannot us accuse of any sin With whom he will repeople The kingdom of heaven with pure souls; That we on Adam, if we ever may, And likewise on his offspring, our wrongs repair, Corrupt him there in his will, If we may it in any way devise. Now I have no confidence farther in this bright state, That which he seems long destined to enjoy, That bliss with his angel's power. We cannot that ever obtain, That we the mighty God's mind weaken; Let us avert it now from the children of men, That heavenly kingdom now we may not have it; Let us so do that they forfeit his favor, That they pervert that which he with his word commanded. Then with them will he be wroth in mind, Then shall they seek this hell, Then may we them have to ourselves as vassals The children of men in this fast durance. Begin we now about the warfare to consult: If to any follower I Princely treasures Gave of old, While we in that good realm. And in our seats had sway, Then me he never, at time more precious, Could with recompense My gift repay; If in return for it he would (Any of my followers) Be my supporter, So that up from hence he Pass through these barriers; And had power with him, Revolve in cloud To where stand wrought |