![Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - X - Struggle Of The Britons Against The Barbarians, By: William Wordsworth](https://i0.wp.com/poetrycatalog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ecclesiastical-Sonnets-Part-I-X-Struggle-Of-The-Britons-Against-The-Barbarians-By-William-Wordsworth.png?resize=750%2C420&ssl=1)
Rise! they ‘have’ risen: of brave Aneurin ask
How they have scourged old foes, perfidious friends:
The Spirit of Caractacus descends
Upon the Patriots, animates their task;
Amazement runs before the towering casque
Of Arthur, bearing through the stormy field
The virgin sculptured on his Christian shield:
Stretched in the sunny light of victory bask
The Host that followed Urien as he strode
O’er heaps of slain; from Cambrian wood and moss
Druids descend, auxiliars of the Cross;
Bards, nursed on blue Plinlimmon’s still abode,
Rush on the fight, to harps preferring swords,
And everlasting deeds to burning words!