Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
Copy
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343090" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Warrior's Return</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sir Walter returned from the far Holy Land,<br>And a blood-tinctured falchion he bore;<br>But such precious blood as now darkened his sword<br>Had never distained it before.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fast fluttered his heart as his own castle towers<br>He saw on the mountain's green height;<br>"My wife, and my son!" he exclaimed, while his tears<br>Obscured for some moments his sight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For terror now whispered, the wife he had left<br>Full fifteen long twelvemonths before,<br>The child he had clasp't in his farewell embrace,<br>Might both, then, alas! be no more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then, sighing, he thought of his Editha's tears<br>As his steed bore him far from her sight,<br>And her accents of love, while she fervently cried,<br>"Great God! guard his life in the fight!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then he remembered, in language half formed<br>How his child strove to bid him adieu;<br>While scarcely he now can believe, as a man,<br>That infant may soon meet his view.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But should he not live!....To escape from that fear,<br>He eagerly spurred his bold steed:<br>Nor stopped he again, till his own castle moat<br>Forbade on the way to proceed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'T was day-break: yet still past the windows he saw<br>Busy forms lightly trip to and fro:<br>Blest sight! that she lives," he exclaimed with smile,<br>"Those symptoms of housewifery show:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"For, stranger to sloth, and on business intent,<br>The dawn calls her forth from her bed;<br>And see, through the castle, all busy appear,<br>By her to their duty still led."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That instant the knight by the warder was seen,<br>For far flamed the cross on his breast;<br>And while loud blew the horn, now a smile, now a tear,<br>Sir Walter's mix't feelings expressed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Tis I, my loved vassals!" the warrior exclaimed,....<br>The voice reached his Editha's ears;<br>Who, breathless and speechless, soon rushed to his arms,<br>Her transport betraying by tears.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"And dost thou still love me?" he uttered, when first<br>A silence so rapturous he broke;<br>She tried to reply, but in vain....while her sobs<br>A volume of tenderness spoke.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Behold how I'm changed! how I'm scarred!" he exclaimed,<br>"Each charm that I boasted is o'er:"....<br>"Thou hast bled for THY GOD ," she replied, "and each scar<br>Endears thee, my warrior, the more."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"But where is my child?" he cried, pale with alarm,<br>"Thou namest not my Alfred....my boy!"........<br>"And comes he not with you?" she said;...."then some woe <br>Embitters our beverage of joy."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"What meanest thou, my love?"......."When to manhood he grew,<br>And heard of his father's great name,<br>'O let me', he cried, 'to the Holy Land go,<br>To share my sire's dangers, and fame.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"'Perchance my young arm, by the cause nerved with strength,<br>May lower the Pagan's proud crest:<br>And the brave Christian knights, in reward of my zeal,<br>May bind the red cross on my breast,'....</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"'And think'st thou,' I said, 'with the son I can part,<br>Till the father be safe in my arms?<br>No....hope not I'll add to the fears of the wife<br>The mother's as poignant alarms.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"I ceased....and his head on my bosom reclined,<br>While his golden hair shaded his cheek;<br>When, parting his ringlets, I saw the big tears<br>His heart's disappointment bespeak.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The sight overcame me: 'Most loved,' I exclaimed,<br>'Go, share in thy father's renown!<br>Thy mother will gladly, to dry up thy tears,<br>Endure an increase of her own .'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"He kissed me...he thanked me....I armed him myself,<br>And girt his pure sword on his side;<br>So lovely he looked, that the mother's fond fears<br>Were lost in the mother's fond pride."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"He went then?...How long has my warrior been gone?"<br>"A twelvemonth, my Walter, and more."<br>Indeed!....then he scarcely could reach the far land<br>Until the last battle was o'er."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"I told him, my Walter, what armour was yours,<br>And what the device on your shield,<br>In hopes of your meeting."...."Alas!" he returned:<br>"My armour I changed on the field!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"A friend whom I loved from the dawning of youth,<br>For conquest and courage renowned,<br>Fell, fighting beside me, and thus he exclaimed,<br>While life issued fast from the wound:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"'And must I then die ere the flag of the Cross<br>Waves proudly o'er Saracen towers?<br>But grant me, loved Walter, this dying request,<br>For victory must surely be ours:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"'My armour well tried, and my falchion, my shield,<br>In memory of me deign to wear!<br>'T would sooth me to know, when the victory comes on,<br>That something of mine will be there!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"I granted his wish, and his arms I assumed,<br>While yet he the action could see,<br>And marked with delight that his last closing look<br>Was fix't with fond pleasure on me.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Yet now, this remembrance so dear to my heart<br>Is clouded by anxious regret;<br>Since, but for this change on the field of the fight,<br>The father and son would have met!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But if he has fought, and has fallen, my love!"....<br>"Suppress," cried the knight with a frown,<br>"A fear so ill-founded;....if Alfred had died,<br>He'd have fallen a child of renown ."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet vainly he strove by the father's proud hopes<br>To conquer the father's fond fears;<br>He feared for the life of his boy, though with smiles<br>He answered his Editha's tears.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And more and more forced grew the smile on his lip,<br>His brow more o'erclouded with thought;<br>At length he exclaimed, "From the field of renown<br>One mournful memorial I've brought.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"I grieve that I won it!....A Saracen chief<br>Fell bleeding before me in fight,<br>When lo! as I claimed him my prisoner and prize,<br>A warrior disputed my right.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"'I'm new to the battle,' he cried, 'and this prize<br>Will wreathe my young brow with renown,<br>Nor will I the conquest resign but with life:....<br>That chief by this arm was o'erthrown.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"His daring enraged me,...for mine seemed the stroke<br>Which laid the proud Saracen low;....<br>Besides, from his bosom depended no cross,<br>His right to such daring to show."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"But surely, my Walter, the daring bespoke<br>A soul nobly eager for fame:<br>So many your laurels, that one you could spare,....<br>O tell me you granted his claim !"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"No, Editha, no!....martial pride steeled my heart,<br>The youth I to combat defied;<br>He fought like a hero! but vainly he fought,...<br>Beneath my strong falchion he died."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"O ill-fated youth! how I bleed for his fate!<br>Perhaps that his mother, like me<br>Had armed him, and blest him, and prays for his life,<br>As I pray, my Alfred, for thee!....</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"But never again shall he gladden her eyes,<br>And haste her fond blessing to crave!<br>O Walter! I tremble lest you in return<br>Be doomed to the sorrow you gave!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Say, did not the cross, when your victim he fell,<br>Lie heavy and cold on your breast;....<br>That symbol of him full of meekness and love,<br>Whose deeds mercy only expressed?"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yes....pity, shame, penitence seized on my soul;<br>So sweet too his voice was in tone!<br>Methought as he lay, and in agony groaned,<br>His accents resembled thine own.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"His casque I unlaced, and I chafed his cold brow,<br>And fain every wound would have healed;<br>So young, and so lovely he seemed, that I wept<br>As by him I tenderly kneeled.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He saw my distress, and his last dying grasp<br>Forgiveness and kindness expressed;<br>And then, with a look I shall never forget,<br>He breathed his last sigh on my breast."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"But what's this memorial?" with cheek deadly pale<br>His Editha falteringly cried:...<br>"This scarf from his bosom!"....he uttered no more,<br>For Editha sunk by his side.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah then in her danger, her pale look of death,<br>He forgot all the laurels he'd won.<br>O father accurst!" she exclaimed, "in that youth<br>You slaughtered your Alfred....your son!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Amelia+Opie">Amelia Opie</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343090" data-title="The Warrior's Return de Amelia Opie" data-description="Sir Walter returned from the far Holy Land, And a blood-tinctured falchion he bore; But such precious blood as now darkened his sword Had never distained it before. Fast fluttered his heart as his own castle towers He saw on the mountain's green ..."></div> </div> </div>
solid border
dashed border
dotted border
double border
groove border
ridge border
inset border
outset border
no border
blue
green
red
purple
cyan
gold
silver
black