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MARMION.

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO SIXTH.

TO RICHARD HEBER, ESQ.

Mertoun-House, Christmas.Heap on more wood!—the wind is chill;But let it whistle as it will,We'll keep our Christmas merry still.Each age has deem'd the new-born year5The fittest time for festal cheer:Even, heathen yet, the savage DaneAt Iol more deep the mead did drain;High on the beach his galleys drew,And feasted all his pirate crew;10Then in his low and pine-built hall,Where shields and axes deck'd the wall,They gorged upon the half-dress'd steer;Caroused in seas of sable beer;While round, in brutal jest, were thrown15The half-gnaw'd rib, and marrow-bone,Or listen'd all, in grim delight,While scalds yell'd out the joys of fight.Then forth, in frenzy, would they hie,While wildly-loose their red locks fly,20And dancing round the blazing pile,They make such barbarous mirth the while,As best might to the mind recallThe boisterous joys of Odin's hall.
 And well our Christian sires of old25Loved when the year its course had roll'd,
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