Landon in The Literary Gazette 1826/Henry Second
Literary Gazette, 25th February, 1826, Page 123
ORIGINAL POETRY.
METRICAL FRAGMENTS.
No. II—King Henry the Second's Death Bed.
Red meteors shot athwart the murk and troubled sky,
And pall-like on the air the gloomy clouds swept by;
And as an evil omen, with its own ill-tidings spent,
The dirge of the autumn wind pined, in the battlement.
The flash of the lightning lit the night of the lone room,
Whose single taper could not light, but only shew the gloom.
It was a stately room, though little state was there,
For the tapestry hung in shreds, and the cold stone floor was bare:
Yet there lay England's king—lay low on his death bed:
He had three fair sons—is there not one to prop his dying head?
No!—one is sleeping in the grave, whence nothing may him bring,
And one has drawn the sword against his father and his king.
Raised the old king his drooping head, heavily did he say,
The glory of fair England's crown from me hath past away;
For my foes have girt me round, and my weary race is run,—
Mine ancient friends have turn'd from me to seek the rising sun:
I soon shall be, like my best hopes, trodden down into dust,—
Then gather round the faithful few whom yet my soul can trust;
O bring,—and fondly as he spoke the aged monarch smiled,—
That I may bless him ere I die,—my true—my favourite child.
How could they speak the truth? how vex his dying ear?
Again King Henry spoke, "Why comes not my child here?”
He read upon their face, what their lips could not disclose,
That his favourite child had join'd beneath the banner of his foes!
He started from his couch, his wither'd hands he raised,—
The lightning like the fire of hell over his pale face blazed,—
"Curses on my false children I pray that there may be!
And may they die the evil death that they have brought on me!"
The thunder shook the roof, as the troubled element
Gave from the heaven above fiercely its stern assent:
And soon the monarch's breath had pass'd, had pass'd like the night wind,
And though his lips were cold in death, his curse remain'd behind.[1]
IOLE.
- ↑
The untimely end of all King Henry’s children is
remarkable; three died suddenly in the flower of their age,
and the last, John, only survived to lead a life of shame,
and see the fairest ornaments of his crown ravished from
him.