Forth flew the dire command
For Lucan to advance,
Forth dashed his gallant band,
Swift as a meteor's glance.
Five hundred to each man,
In horrent phalanx stood;
And, from each flank and van,
Death's bullets drank our blood.
In agony intense
Whole armies watched the shock,
Till, through their columns dense,
As lightning cleaves the rock,
Full flashed our gallant band,
Like deities on earth,
And scattered o'er the strand
These vultures of the North.
But quick the conflict thickens,
Outnumbered and enthralled;
Each pulse to madness quickens —
Girt, goaded, not appalled.
Hoarse roar the Russian cannon,
Fierce gleams the British blade,
As rank from rank is riven,
Each foeman prostrate laid.
White foams the jaded steed,
Red reeks the slippery sward,
As back to back they bleed,
Dash forward, smite, and guard.
Hurrah! shouts Cardigan,
As bloodier grows the fight,
Let horde on horde come on,
They may slay, but ne'er affright.
Heaped barriers of their dead
Shall be laid on every yard;
And our best blood stain the glade,
Ere one cry for quarter's heard.
North country poets: poems and biographies of natives or residents of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire ...: (modern section)
by Andrews, William, 1848-1908
Published 1888
https://archive.org/details/nrthcountrypoets02andriala
Of all our northern poets George Roberts Hedley is perhaps the nearest akin to that species of versifier which comes under the beautifully associative designation of Bard. He sings upon occasion. He recognises the soul-appeal, the suggestiveness of an occurrence, an aspect, a current sentiment, and straightway pours it forth in a lay that recalls in its spontaneous flow the grandly simple song-flood of Ossian, If it is done with secret labour we are rarely aware of it, and never does his verse impress its mechanism upon us. To attempt this style is fatal; it must be accomplished without effort, and in a great measure without consciousness. In this respect wo may call Hed- ley a strong poet. To urge such a Pegasus as he rides would be (to repeat) fatal; to check him would be to mar and dock him to worthlessness. It is this last consideration the example he furnishes that first thoughts are best which gives us a true comparison for his poetry. We have spoken of that of Ossian,* but simply as a comparison of the unobstructed flow of the poetic fountain. Where we find the greatest similarity in tendency of thought, construction of language, and above all, in the undeleted record of first impressions, is in Herrick. Hedley is the Herrick of the nineteenth century. He has been compared with Burns partly on account of his semi-amorous pieces but lacks a blemish or two to make such a comparison in that connection just; that there are points of likeness, however, must be admitted not that he's like Burns the less, but Herrick more. It is a great thing for men as readers and thinkers that the achieve- ments of their forefathers are permanently before them; but for the true poet of our day it is individually more a misfortune. As all things material are governed by relentless laws, scarcely less, does it seem, is the universe of ideas ranged by an orderly circle of rules iuto, not an exhaustible series, but a series whose ultimate differences are becoming evanescent or un- worthy subtleties. Do we want other example than the enormous quantity of verse the world now produces; the tiny brooklets which have been over-leaped to reach the fuller streams of Northern Poetry are evidence, If we find Hedley in his robust course occasionally striking a sounding note upon a string which has been wont to vibrate associatively with the names of Burns, Herrick, or another, we shall also find that it is not more theirs than his, for Nature has given him a gamut in tune with her own. The proof of the melody is in the hearer. We will not limit Mr. Hedley's merits to his pastorals, though they cannot be unmentioned. It has been said that they have the true byre- * In questions of critical comparison of this nature, Ossian it should be, nnJ no other name. A student of Macpherson's collections and compositions, if he will not believe that the spirit of those words was ever attuned to Ossian's harp, must fall back upon some Pythagorean theory. 194 North Country Poets. whiff and hay- smell of the country; a long and enjoyed rural experience has rendered Nature's breath for him here almost an inspiration. His songs to female beauty are delicate, though often glowing, pictures that have no moral flaw. His narrative compositions narrative rather by suggestion and implication than by statement are most touching, and shew the gift of sympathy which should be in every man, but must be in every poet. He is happy in lines where satire reigns, and his pieces of chastise- ment are marked by great powers of, and the unrestrained use of. invective; these character-cameos are valuable studies, and we could wish them more numerous. Mr. Hedley's verse includes the use of many archaic words and ex- pressions, which would be a fault were it not that they are so well chosen, being chiefly such as impart to the verse a dignity born of a chivalrous origin. George Roberts Hedley was born at Ovington, on the north bank of the Tyne, in 1833, a scion of the fighting, farming clan of Hedley, of Reed- water, and himself a typical Border lord in all but the lawlessness of that ancient character and the want of refinement that rude times almost invariably produce. A farmer all his life, he has been such a farmer as would buy among a choice of fertile land that which was most picturesque; and who, in the midst of co-appreciative friends, would salute from his hall door his glorious view bathed in a golden sunset, with a bumper of good red wine in true poetic fashiou. Such a farm is Thistlebottom that it is not surprising that it should be so chosen, so drank to, so sung. Mr. Hedley published his first volume of poems in 1885, and a politi- cal satire entitled " Four Years of Misrule," in 1886. T. TlNDALL WlLDRIDGE.