135
And, if that men report him right,
His tongue could whisper words of might.[14]
--Now another day is come,
Fitter hope, and nobler doom;
He hath thrown aside his crook, 140
And hath buried deep his book;
Armour rusting in his halls
On the blood of Clifford calls;--[G]
'Quell the Scot,' exclaims the Lance--
Bear me to the heart of France, 145
Is the longing of the Shield--
Tell thy name, thou trembling Field;
Field of death, where'er thou be,
Groan thou with our victory!
Happy day, and mighty hour, 150
When our Shepherd, in his power,
Mailed and horsed, with lance and sword,
To his ancestors restored
Like a re-appearing Star,
Like a glory from afar, 155
First shall head the flock of war!"

Alas! the impassioned minstrel did not know
How, by Heaven's grace, this Clifford's heart was framed:
How he, long forced in humble walks to go,[15]
Was softened into feeling, soothed, and tamed. 160

Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;
His daily teachers had been woods and rills,
The silence that is in[16] the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills.

In him the savage virtue of the Race, 165
Revenge, and all ferocious thoughts were dead:
Nor did he change; but kept in lofty place
The wisdom which adversity had bred.

Glad were the vales, and every cottage-hearth;
The Shepherd-lord was honoured more and more; 170
And, ages after he was laid in earth,
"The good Lord Clifford" was the name he bore.

The original text of this _Song_ was altered but little in succeeding
editions, and was not changed at all till 1836 and 1845. The following
is Wordsworth's explanatory note, appended to the poem in all the
editions:--

"Henry Lord Clifford, etc. etc., who is the subject of this Poem,
was the son of John, Lord Clifford, who was slain at Towton
Field,[H] which John, Lord Clifford, as is known to the Reader of
English History, was the person who after the battle of Wakefield
slew, in the pursuit, the young Earl of Rutland, Son of the Duke
of York who had fallen in the battle, 'in part of revenge' (say
the Authors of the _History of Cumberland and Westmoreland_); 'for
t