The Ballad of the White Horse

Коллекция текстов · poetry

Prefatory Note · Dedication
Prefatory Note This ballad needs no historical notes, for the simple reason that it does not profess to be historical. All of it that is no…
Book I. The Vision of the King
Before the gods that made the gods Had seen their sunrise pass, The White Horse of the White Horse Vale Was cut out of the grass. Before th…
Book II. The Gathering of the Chiefs
Up across windy wastes and up Went Alfred over the shaws, Shaken of the joy of giants, The joy without a cause. In the slopes away to the w…
Book III. The Harp of Alfred
In a tree that yawned and twisted The King's few goods were flung, A mass-book mildewed, line by line, And weapons and a skin of wine, And…
Book IV. The Woman in the Forest
Thick thunder of the snorting swine, Enormous in the gloam, Rending among all roots that cling, And the wild horses whinnying, Were the nig…
Book V. Ethandune: The First Stroke
King Guthrum was a dread king, Like death out of the north; Shrines without name or number He rent and rolled as lumber, From Chester to th…
Book VI. Ethandune: The Slaying of the Chiefs
As the sea flooding the flat sands Flew on the sea-born horde, The two hosts shocked with dust and din, Left of the Latian paladin, Clanged…
Book VII. Ethandune: The Last Charge
Away in the waste of White Horse Down An idle child alone Played some small game through hours that pass, And patiently would pluck the gra…
Book VIII. The Scouring of the Horse
In the years of the peace of Wessex, When the good King sat at home; Years following on that bloody boon When she that stands above the moo…