Pile of Fouldrey Castle, Lancashire



No memory of its former state,
No record of its fame,
A broken wall, a fallen tower,
A half-forgotten name;
A gloomy shadow on the wave,
And silence deep as in the grave.

And yet it had its glorious days,
It had its hour of pride,
When o'er the drawbridge gallantly
Its warriors wont to ride ;
When silver shield, and plume of snow,
Were mirror'd in the wave below.

In sooth, that was a stirring time
Of chivalry and song.
When the bright spear was put in rest.
And the right arm was strong ;
When minstrel meed, and ladye's glove.
Were high rewards of war and love.

Oh ! vain delusion, cruel days
Were then upon the land ;
A battlement on every wall,
A sword in every hand ;
And rose the cry, and poured the flood.
Of human wrong, and human blood.

Then many a stately castle stood
O'er dungeons dark and deep ;
Then many a noble robber wont
The king's highway to keep.
Ah ! these were not the times to praise,
Thank God, we know more peaceful days.

Oh ! better that the ivy wreath
Should clothe the mouldering tower,
Than it should be a place of strength.
For passion and for power.
All glory to those stern old times,
But leave them to their minstrel rhymes.
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Submitted by Madeleine Quinn on November 15, 2015

Modified on March 18, 2023

1:06 min read
109

Quick analysis:

Scheme XABACC DEXEFF XGXGHH DIXIJJ XKXKDD XBXBLL
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,125
Words 216
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

 · 1802 · Chelsea

Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet. Born 14th August 1802 at 25 Hans Place, Chelsea, she lived through the most productive period of her life nearby, at No.22. A precocious child with a natural gift for poetry, she was driven by the financial needs of her family to become a professional writer and thus a target for malicious gossip (although her three children by William Jerdan were successfully hidden from the public). In 1838, she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast, whence she travelled, only to die a few months later (15th October) of a fatal heart condition. Behind her post-Romantic style of sentimentality lie preoccupations with art, decay and loss that give her poetry its characteristic intensity and in this vein she attempted to reinterpret some of the great male texts from a woman’s perspective. Her originality rapidly led to her being one of the most read authors of her day and her influence, commencing with Tennyson in England and Poe in America, was long-lasting. However, Victorian attitudes led to her poetry being misrepresented and she became excluded from the canon of English literature, where she belongs. more…

All Letitia Elizabeth Landon poems | Letitia Elizabeth Landon Books

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