The Poetry Corner

Bodica

By Alfred Lord Tennyson

While about the shore of Mona those Neronian legionaries Burnt and broke the grove and altar of the Druid and Druidess, Far in the East Bodica, standing loftily charioted, Mad and maddening all that heard her in her fierce volubility, Girt by half the tribes of Britain, near the colony Cmulodne, Yelld and shriekd between her daughters oer a wild confederacy. They that scorn the tribes and call us Britains barbarous populaces, Did they hear me, would they listen, did they pity me supplicating? Shall I heed them in their anguish? shall I brook to be supplicated? Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant! Must their ever-ravening eagles beak and talon annihilate us? Tear the noble heart of Britain, leave it gorily quivering? Bark an answer, Britains raven! bark and blacken innumerable, Blacken round the Roman carrion, make the carcase a skeleton, Kite and kestrel, wolf and wolfkin, from the wilderness, wallow in it, Till the face of Bel be brightend, Taranis be propitiated. Lo their colony half-defended! lo their colony, Cmulodne! There the horde of Roman robbers mock at a barbarous adversary. There the hive of Roman liars worship a gluttonous emperor-idiot. Such is Rome, and this her deity: hear it, Spirit of Cssivlan! Hear it, Gods! the Gods have heard it, O Icenian, O Coritanian! Doubt not ye the Gods have answerd, Catieuchlanian, Trinobant. These have told us all their anger in miraculous utterances, Thunder, a flying fire in heaven, a murmur heard arially, Phantom sound of blows descending, moan of an enemy massacred, Phantom wail of women and children, multitudinous agonies. Bloodily flowd the Tamesa rolling phantom bodies of horses and men; Then a phantom colony smoulderd on the refluent estuary; Lastly yonder yester-even, suddenly giddily tottering There was one who watchd and told medown their statue of Victory fell. Lo their precious Roman bantling, lo the colony Cmulodne, Shall we teach it a Roman lesson? shall we care to be pitiful? Shall we deal with it as an infant? shall we dandle it amorously? Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant! While I roved about the forest, long and bitterly meditating, There I heard them in the darkness, at the mystical ceremony, Loosely robed in flying raiment, sang the terrible prophetesses. Fear not, isle of blowing woodland, isle of silvery parapets! Tho the Roman eagle shadow thee, tho the gathering enemy narrow thee, Thou shalt wax and he shall dwindle, thou shalt be the mighty one yet! Thine the liberty, thine the glory, thine the deeds to be celebrated, Thine the myriad-rolling ocean, light and shadow illimitable, Thine the lands of lasting summer, many-blossoming Paradises, Thine the North and thine the South and thine the battle-thunder of God. So they chanted: how shall Britain light upon auguries happier? So they chanted in the darkness, and there cometh a victory now. Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant! Me the wife of rich Prastagus, me the lover of liberty, Me they seized and me they tortured, me they lashd and humiliated, Me the sport of ribald Veterans, mine of ruffian violators! See they sit, they hide their faces, miserable in ignominy! Wherefore in me burns an anger, not by blood to be satiated. Lo the palaces and the temple, lo the colony Cmulodne! There they ruled, and thence they wasted all the flourishing territory, Thither at their will they haled the yellow-ringleted Britoness Bloodily, bloodily fall the battle-axe, unexhausted, inexorable. Shout Icenian, Catieuchlanian, shout Coritanian, Trinobant, Till the victim hear within and yearn to hurry precipitously Like the leaf in a roaring whirlwind, like the smoke in a hurricane whirld. Lo the colony, there they rioted in the city of Cnobelne! There they drank in cups of emerald, there at tables of ebony lay, Rolling on their purple couches in their tender effeminacy. There they dwelt and there they rioted; theretherethey dwell no more. Burst the gates, and burn the palaces, break the works of the statuary, Take the hoary Roman head and shatter it, hold it abominable, Cut the Roman boy to pieces in his lust and voluptuousness, Lash the maiden into swooning, me they lashd and humiliated, Chop the breasts from off the mother, dash the brains of the little one out, Up my Britons, on my chariot, on my chargers, trample them under us. So the Queen Bodica, standing loftily charioted, Brandishing in her hand a dart and rolling glances lioness-like, Yelld and shriekd between her daughters in her fierce volubility. Till her people all around the royal chariot agitated, Madly dashd the darts together, writhing barbarous lineaments, Made the noise of frosty woodlands, when they shiver in January, Roard as when the rolling breakers boom and blanch on the precipices, Yelld as when the winds of winter tear an oak on a promontory. So the silent colony hearing her tumultuous adversaries Clash the darts and on the buckler beat with rapid unanimous hand, Thought on all her evil tyrannies, all her pitiless avarice, Till she felt the heart within her fall and flutter tremulously, Then her pulses at the clamoring of her enemy fainted away. Out of evil evil flourishes, out of tyranny tyranny buds. Ran the land with Roman slaughter, multitudinous agonies. Perishd many a maid and matron, many a valorous legionary. Fell the colony, city, and citadel, London, Verulam, Cmulodne.