Le Temps Passé

    Those brave old days when King Abuse did reign
    We sigh for, but we shall not see again.
    Then Eldon sowed the seed of equity
    That grew to bounteous harvest, and with glee
    A Bar of modest numbers shared the grain.
    Then lived the pleaders who could issues feign,
    Who blushed not to aver that France or Spain
    Was in the Ward of Chepe;[I] no more can be
                                                Those brave old days.

    O'er pauper settlements men fought amain,
    And golden guineas followed in their train,
    John Doe then flourished like a lusty tree,
    And Richard Roe brought many a noble fee,
    We mourn in unremunerated pain
                                                Those brave old days.

James Williams

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James Williams

The Court Of Reason

James Williams, Simple Poetry

Translations - Greek Anthology

James Williams, Simple Poetry

Cases - Willis V. The Bishop Of Oxford

James Williams, Simple Poetry

To Rome

James Williams, Simple Poetry

English

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Battle Days

I

Veteran memories rally to muster
Here at the call of the old battle days:
Cavalry clatter and cannon's hoarse bluster:
All the wild whirl of the fight's broken maze:
Clangor of bugle and flashing of sabre,
Smoke-stifled flags and the howl of the shell,
With earth for a rest place and death for a neighbor,
And dreams of a charge and the deep rebel yell.
Stern was our task in the field where the reaping
Spared the ripe harvest, but laid our men low:
Grim was the sorrow that held us from weeping:
Awful the rush of the strife's ebb and flow.
Swift came the silence - our enemy hiding
Sudden retreat in the cloud-muffled night:
Swift as a hawk-pounce our hill-and-dale riding;
Hundreds on hundreds we caught in their flight!
Hard and incessant the danger a...

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A Ballade of Lost Law

    (Spirit of Lord Eldon speaks)

    This England is gone staring mad,
    She hath abolished Chancery,[J]
    See the long lines of suitors, sad
    To find themselves unwontedly
    After one day of trial free.
    Pleading and seals have gone their way.
    "I know," said I, "that after me
    Too quickly comes the evil day."


    (Spirit of Lord Lyndhurst speaks)

    I was Chief Baron, and I had
    A Court of Law and Equity,[K]
    The Courts at Westminster were clad
    With ancient glory fair to see.
    Now County Courts have come to be
    Exalted high on our decay,
    And every whit as good as we;
    Too quickly comes the evil day.


    (Shade of Butler speaks)

    In days of yore we used to p...

James Williams

The Peasants' Revolt. {35}

Thro' the mists of years,
    Thro' the lies of men,
Your bloody sweat and tears,
Your desperate hopes and fears
    Reach us once again.

Brothers, who long ago,
    For life's bitter sake
Toiled and suffered so,
Robbery, insult, blow,
    Rope and sword and stake:

Toiled and suffered, till
    It burst, the brightening hope,
"Might and right" and "will and skill,"
That scorned, and does, and will,
    Sword and stake and rope!

Wat and Jack and John,
    Tyler, Straw, and Ball,
Souls that faltered not,
Hearts like white iron hot,
    Still we hear your call!

Yes, your "bell is rung,"
    Yes, for "now is time!"
Come hither, every one,
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The Jamestown Anniversary Ode.

In those vast forests dwelt a race of kings,
Free as the eagle when he spreads his wings -
His wings which never in their wild flight lag -
In mists which fly the fierce tornado's flag;
Their flight the eagle's! and their name, alas!
The eagle's shadow swooping o'er the grass,
Or, as it fades, it well may seem to be
The shade of tempest driven o'er the sea.

Fierce, too, this race, as mountain torrent wild,
With haughty hearts, where Mercy rarely smiled -
All their traditions - histories imbued
With tales of war and sanguinary feud,
Yet though they never couched the knightly lance,
The glowing songs of Europe's old romance
Can find their parallels amid the race,
Which, on this spot, met England face to face.
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James Barron Hope

The Roaring Days

The night too quickly passes
And we are growing old,
So let us fill our glasses
And toast the Days of Gold;
When finds of wondrous treasure
Set all the South ablaze,
And you and I were faithful mates
All through the roaring days!

Then stately ships came sailing
From every harbour's mouth,
And sought the land of promise
That beaconed in the South;
Then southward streamed their streamers
And swelled their canvas full
To speed the wildest dreamers
E'er borne in vessel's hull.

Their shining Eldorado,
Beneath the southern skies,
Was day and night for ever
Before their eager eyes.
The brooding bush, awakened,
Was stirred in wild unrest,
And all the year a human stream
Went pouring to the West.

The rough bush ...

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Arms And The Man. - The Beginning Of The End.

As some spent gladiator, struck by Death,
Whose reeling vision scarce a foe defines,
For one last effort gathers all his breath,
England draws in her lines.

Her blood-red flag floats out full fair, but flows
O'er crumbling bastions, in fictitious state:
Who stands a siege Cornwallis full well knows,
        Plays at a game with Fate.

Siege means surrender at the bitter end,
From Ilium downward such the sword-made rule,
With few exceptions, few indeed amend
    This law in any school!

The student who for these has ever sought
'Mid his exceptions Cæsar counts as one,
Besieger and besieged he, victor, fought
Under a Gallic sun.

For Vircinget'rex failed, but at the wall:
He strove and failed gilded by Glory's rays
So that true sol...

James Barron Hope