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Runic Odes

ye Rulers of the North,
Spirits of exalted worth;
By the silence of the night,
By subtle magic’s secret rite;
By Peolphan murky King,
5
Master of th’ enchanted ring;
By all and each of hell’s grim host,
Howling demon, tortur’d ghost;
By each spell and potent word
Burst from lips of Glauron’s Lord;
10
By Coronzon’s awful power;
By the dread and solemn hour,
When Gual fierce, and Hamad strong,
Stride the blast that roars along;
Or, in fell descending swoop,
15
Bid the furious spirit stoop
O’er desolation’s gloomy plain,
Haunt of warriors battle slain.
Now the world in sleep is laid,
Thorbiorga calls your aid

Mark the sable feline coat,
Spotted girdle velvet-wrought;
Mark the skin of glistening snake,
Sleeping seiz’d in forest brake;
Mark the radiant crystal stone,
25
On which days Sovereign never shone,
From the cavern dark and deep
Digg’d i’ th’ hour of mortal sleep;
Mark the cross, in mystic round [2]
Meetly o’er the sandal bound,
30
And the symbols grav’d thereon,
Holiest Tetragrammaton! [3]
Now while midnight torches gleam,
Rivals of the Moon’s pale beam,
On ocean’s unfrequented shore
35
Some moss-grown ruin silvering o’er.
While the flame of resinous fire
Mounts aloft in curling spire;
I scatter round this charmed room,
The fragrance of the myrrh’s perfume;
40
And, bending o’er this consecrated sword,
confirm each murmur’d spell, each inly-thrilling word.

Source: Runic Odes: Imitated from the Norse Tongue in the Manner of Mr. Gray (London: T. Payne et al., 1781), 27–9.